Sunday, September 17, 2006 10:57:12 PM
HBO's fourth season of "The Wire" gets inside the weary reality of Baltimore's neglected schools, while CBS's "Jericho" brings us the sweet nectar of apocalypse, at long last!
I Like to Watch
By Heather Havrilesky
Sep. 17, 2006 | It's been a cruel, cruel summer for the TV enthusiasts out there. Sure, there were some cheap thrills [blah blah blah . . .]
[blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .]
Things to do in Denver when you're dead
The new drama I really want you to catch this week is CBS's "Jericho," (premieres 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 20) not because it's the best new show coming up this fall, but because it's so deliciously ominous that you really have to savor its charms before it disappears.
You know how the best parts of "24" always involve total strangers panicking and bleeding out of every orifice? Well, "Jericho" is just like that, except every single scene includes hefty doses of hysteria and big hearty dollops of impending doom! In fact, between the mushroom clouds in the distance and the shocked, scared masses crouching in drippy fallout shelters, you'll be daydreaming happily about the apocalypse every single night until the world finally ends -- you know, a few months from now.
Now, don't get me wrong: Leading man Skeet Ulrich is no Jack Bauer, although he's suspiciously calm under pressure, and he's a disturbingly accurate sharpshooter to boot. No, Skeet's main purpose is to be efficient, effective, capable -- and to make us wonder what his fine little torso looks like under that shirt. Mission accomplished!
Ulrich plays Jake, a small-town Johnny Depp who, instead of appearing in a series of indie flicks and then escaping to Paris because he's too sexy for the States, wanders back to his hometown to tie up some loose ends before his next big adventure. Good thing he stops by Jericho, Kansas, at that exact moment, though, because just as he's driving out of town, kablooey! Denver blows sky high in the distance! Muahahaha!
You really have to keep in mind, when you're watching, that Denver is about to blow up, because the small-town dramas that unfold in the first few minutes of the show are less than thrilling: We've got Hearst from "Deadwood" (Gerald McRaney) as the town's stodgy mayor and Jake's dad, Pamela Reed as the mayor's devoted but slightly jumpy wife, and Lennie James as the mysterious stranger who knows too much -- you know, sort of like the sheriff on "Invasion," but a little more helpful and less reptilian.
Is this a terrorist attack? Why have all the attempts to contact anyone outside of Jericho failed? What the hell is going on out there? One answer comes in the delicious phone call from the resident weirdo's mother, who was out of town at the time of the disaster. The message goes something like this, "Hi, honey, just calling to check in. I love you and..." [Man's voice] "Hey, come over here, you gotta see this!" [Mom] "Oh my god, what is that? Oh my god! Aaaaiieeee!" [Sound of breaking glass, buildings crumbling, mountains falling into the sea, God's big footsteps coming back to judge the living and the dead, etc., and then the line goes silent.] Yeah, I know. Sweet, delicious apocalypse, how we've ached for you these long years!
But it gets better. The kid brings his answering machine over to the mayor's house and plays it for a big crowd gathered there. They all cover their mouths and shake their heads. Oh my god! How awful! Jake's mom, Gail, says, "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't know your mom was in Denver." The kid replies, "She wasn't in Denver. She was in... Atlanta!" Gasp! The entire room does their best impression of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," and tragedy fetishists across the nation are instantly hooked.
Yes, just when we thought Lukas Rossi's victory as the creepy lead singer of dorky Supernova mattered, "Jericho" rolls in and puts it all in perspective: screaming, hysterical masses, a nationwide catastrophe, and a small town having to fend for itself while the nuclear fallout rolls in. Now that's entertainment, folks!
Will "Jericho" stay this good? Probably not. The second episode is much cheesier and less suspenseful than the pilot -- nothing quite beats those mushroom clouds in the distance, let's face it. Plus, what are they going to do, crouch in the basement for 20 weeks straight? This one might go the way of CBS's last big bang to end in a fizzle, "Threshold." That show was delightfully horrifying for about three episodes; then they started replacing corpses and supernatural freakiness with bad dialogue and close-ups of broken watches, and it all went downhill from there.
Why can't Carla Gugino (lead of "Threshold") buy a break, anyway? Shouldn't she be Ulrich's small-town love interest? I know what you're thinking, too: "Isn't he much younger than her?" See, that's what Hollywood's twisted logic does to your brain. In fact, Gugino is 35 and Ulrich is 36, and they both incite so much speculation about their bare upper bodies that it's obvious -- they're perfect for each other. Instead, we get boring Ashley Scott (who's 29) playing Jake's bland love interest.
Whatever, just give us more big explosions, or maybe some beloved townspeople with disfiguring radiation sickness, and we'll forgive you.
A world of televised wonders, coming your way
Looks like, between urban blight and nuclear holocaust, we've run out of time for this week. Let's just rejoice that there are so many new shows on the horizon, billowing like mushroom clouds, threatening to lay waste to our conversational Portuguese lessons and our three-week vacations in the Italian countryside. [blah blah . . .] [end]
Copyright ©2006 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2006/09/17/the_wire/
[F6 comment -- obvious pre-election follow-on to 'Path to 9/11', yet another blatant deliberately themed and timed psyop from the get-go -- and this is what Salon has to say about it!? -- unfuckingbelievable -- I look forward to learning more re the people/entities/$$ behind this one -- . . .]
I Like to Watch
By Heather Havrilesky
Sep. 17, 2006 | It's been a cruel, cruel summer for the TV enthusiasts out there. Sure, there were some cheap thrills [blah blah blah . . .]
[blah blah blah blah blah blah . . .]
Things to do in Denver when you're dead
The new drama I really want you to catch this week is CBS's "Jericho," (premieres 8 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 20) not because it's the best new show coming up this fall, but because it's so deliciously ominous that you really have to savor its charms before it disappears.
You know how the best parts of "24" always involve total strangers panicking and bleeding out of every orifice? Well, "Jericho" is just like that, except every single scene includes hefty doses of hysteria and big hearty dollops of impending doom! In fact, between the mushroom clouds in the distance and the shocked, scared masses crouching in drippy fallout shelters, you'll be daydreaming happily about the apocalypse every single night until the world finally ends -- you know, a few months from now.
Now, don't get me wrong: Leading man Skeet Ulrich is no Jack Bauer, although he's suspiciously calm under pressure, and he's a disturbingly accurate sharpshooter to boot. No, Skeet's main purpose is to be efficient, effective, capable -- and to make us wonder what his fine little torso looks like under that shirt. Mission accomplished!
Ulrich plays Jake, a small-town Johnny Depp who, instead of appearing in a series of indie flicks and then escaping to Paris because he's too sexy for the States, wanders back to his hometown to tie up some loose ends before his next big adventure. Good thing he stops by Jericho, Kansas, at that exact moment, though, because just as he's driving out of town, kablooey! Denver blows sky high in the distance! Muahahaha!
You really have to keep in mind, when you're watching, that Denver is about to blow up, because the small-town dramas that unfold in the first few minutes of the show are less than thrilling: We've got Hearst from "Deadwood" (Gerald McRaney) as the town's stodgy mayor and Jake's dad, Pamela Reed as the mayor's devoted but slightly jumpy wife, and Lennie James as the mysterious stranger who knows too much -- you know, sort of like the sheriff on "Invasion," but a little more helpful and less reptilian.
Is this a terrorist attack? Why have all the attempts to contact anyone outside of Jericho failed? What the hell is going on out there? One answer comes in the delicious phone call from the resident weirdo's mother, who was out of town at the time of the disaster. The message goes something like this, "Hi, honey, just calling to check in. I love you and..." [Man's voice] "Hey, come over here, you gotta see this!" [Mom] "Oh my god, what is that? Oh my god! Aaaaiieeee!" [Sound of breaking glass, buildings crumbling, mountains falling into the sea, God's big footsteps coming back to judge the living and the dead, etc., and then the line goes silent.] Yeah, I know. Sweet, delicious apocalypse, how we've ached for you these long years!
But it gets better. The kid brings his answering machine over to the mayor's house and plays it for a big crowd gathered there. They all cover their mouths and shake their heads. Oh my god! How awful! Jake's mom, Gail, says, "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't know your mom was in Denver." The kid replies, "She wasn't in Denver. She was in... Atlanta!" Gasp! The entire room does their best impression of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," and tragedy fetishists across the nation are instantly hooked.
Yes, just when we thought Lukas Rossi's victory as the creepy lead singer of dorky Supernova mattered, "Jericho" rolls in and puts it all in perspective: screaming, hysterical masses, a nationwide catastrophe, and a small town having to fend for itself while the nuclear fallout rolls in. Now that's entertainment, folks!
Will "Jericho" stay this good? Probably not. The second episode is much cheesier and less suspenseful than the pilot -- nothing quite beats those mushroom clouds in the distance, let's face it. Plus, what are they going to do, crouch in the basement for 20 weeks straight? This one might go the way of CBS's last big bang to end in a fizzle, "Threshold." That show was delightfully horrifying for about three episodes; then they started replacing corpses and supernatural freakiness with bad dialogue and close-ups of broken watches, and it all went downhill from there.
Why can't Carla Gugino (lead of "Threshold") buy a break, anyway? Shouldn't she be Ulrich's small-town love interest? I know what you're thinking, too: "Isn't he much younger than her?" See, that's what Hollywood's twisted logic does to your brain. In fact, Gugino is 35 and Ulrich is 36, and they both incite so much speculation about their bare upper bodies that it's obvious -- they're perfect for each other. Instead, we get boring Ashley Scott (who's 29) playing Jake's bland love interest.
Whatever, just give us more big explosions, or maybe some beloved townspeople with disfiguring radiation sickness, and we'll forgive you.
A world of televised wonders, coming your way
Looks like, between urban blight and nuclear holocaust, we've run out of time for this week. Let's just rejoice that there are so many new shows on the horizon, billowing like mushroom clouds, threatening to lay waste to our conversational Portuguese lessons and our three-week vacations in the Italian countryside. [blah blah . . .] [end]
Copyright ©2006 Salon Media Group, Inc.
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/iltw/2006/09/17/the_wire/
[F6 comment -- obvious pre-election follow-on to 'Path to 9/11', yet another blatant deliberately themed and timed psyop from the get-go -- and this is what Salon has to say about it!? -- unfuckingbelievable -- I look forward to learning more re the people/entities/$$ behind this one -- . . .]
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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