Too late review: the fourth season of Southland

#southland @southland_TNT

I’m a fan of the show Southland, and usually I give a bit of a review after the season starts. But this season was different, and I didn’t want the responsibility of backing the show if it wasn’t going to live up to my expectations of the first three seasons.

The show’s finale was on this week, and now I’m bummed I didn’t promote it to you sooner. You should have watched it. It aired on TNT on Tuesdays.

In some ways the show didn’t live up to previous seasons.  I could be wrong, but the show appears to be losing some backing for actors and writers. But all in all, it was worth watching.

There were a couple episodes where they picked up transcripts straight from the show COPS and transposed them into the characters. It was overtly blatant, and I hope they paid for those rights. One of the stolen scenes was a famous COPS episode in Las Vegas in which a little person climbs a street pole and the cop starts laughing as he pulls on his hips to get him down.

One episode, every scene, was a COPS-mimicked show. It worked for me. There moments where the characters spoke to camera. They were explaining what was going on. And I enjoyed it.

Another difference this season was a sort of processing they did to some of the “film”. It’s obvious that the show uses a lot of handheld DSLR cameras. But the production team processed a saturated look into the film at points, and it bothered me. Initially, one of the points of interest for the show was it’s “natural” look.

It also appeared to me that the show used more lighting than it has before. Oftentimes in the past, actors weren’t lighted well, which sucks for actors, but creates a sense of reality that is important to sell the characters — at least on this show.

The show goes out of its way to avoid using a music track, but not all the time this season.

One plus for the season was adding Lucy Liu as a major character. They might have done it for draw, but the characters who carried over, Ben McKenzie, Regina King, Shawn Hatosy and Michael Cudlitz are something phenomenal to watch. All of those characters have made their way straight into the sweet spots of my mind, and I want them there every year, when the next, short season comes on.

The defining moment of great, action TV is a show that makes me stand up and shout. And this show delivered on several occasions. Toward the end of the season, it happened more than once within an episode.

While this wasn’t my favorite season, I’m willing to let it slide a bit. The show is great.

One of the themes that carried through the season was the difficulty it is to be a cop. It’s difficult to not get involved. There are breaking points, and the characters hit them. We, the audience, finds ourselves as torn as the characters playing the roles.

There is a gray area to life. It’s not cut and dry. And as much as anyone, not even the strongest believer, can convince anyone that black and white is the way things really are. And as much as it’s a show, letting yourself entertain the idea of being there, making those hard decisions, too, that’s the rub and the fun.

If you haven’t bought your ticket for the Southland bus, and you like COPS shows, you’re missing out.

Holy Trainwreck, are Smurfs and My Little Pony Satanic? I hope so!

From the YouTube Channel:

Yes, I have a sick obsession with watching low budget Christian television. I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I know I’m not alone!

Clips from Club 36 with Dorothy Spaulding.

All of these clips are from a single show that was recorded from their live stream Oct 6th, 2011

Thumbs up if you agree they are INSANE.

Their stream for even more wackiness:
http://quickstudy.wmlive.internapcdn.net/live_quickstudy_vitalstream_com_WBPITV

Note, this “episode” isn’t really connected to games, so I posted on my personal account rather than my Robinson Technologies account.

Part 1 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtmWU0Mwe7E

Part 3 here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNP52mHgbQE

Part 4 here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCXzKWWmIkU

Via

Hump Day Nooner: The House Bunny mnemonic

I’m an Anna Farris fan. And while House Bunny wasn’t that great, Farris’ other work has been stuff that I can watch over and over.

This scene is our favorite scene from House Bunny. It shows how Farris’ humor is dark and her deliveries are amazing, despite the pretty, collagen-injected lips.

This scene makes me laugh and laugh. I love it when the Beetlejuice inspired girl beside her sits up after she repeats “Harmony.”

And then at the end when she explains it’s her mnemonic, the timing from explanation to saying “Natalie” in that voice is comic genius.

Thanks, Tina!

what the kids are posting

The kids over at reddit.com/r/atheism don’t stop when I’m busy. And by not stopping, they keep posting these deranged images with words that make me feel dirty inside.

Dirty, I tell you.

Must … find … way … to … make them … stop.

Honk.

 

William Lane Craig says, “Crap he just destroyed my argument. Don’t worry willy, just reword it so it sounds new. 

I tried using prayer to cure my headache, but Tylenol worked much better. Thank science

 

The Lord is not my shepherd, for I am not a sheep. 

 

 

 

My 9/11

Ten years ago today, I woke up for work to my clock radio set to NPR. Michele Norris or one of the newscasters was talking about something major in New York City.

It was a typical day in Chicago. I woke up around 7:15 or 7:30.

On the radio, Michelle was saying, “Smoke is rising from one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center,” she explained. “At this point, it appears to be an accident. A plane has crashed into one of the buildings. We don’t have any more information.”

I walked over to the TV. I turned it on. I never watched TV in the morning. But I figured something like this must be covered by regular TV. I didn’t have cable.

As soon as I turned the TV on, I saw images of what the radio voices were describing. Smoke was rising from near the top of a New York City building. I was ignorant of the New York skyline, so it was Greek to me.

In the voices of the radio personalities, there was definitive panic behind the “calm.”

I grabbed the phone. I called Tina. She picked up.

“Hello?” she said.

“Did you hear the news?”

“I’m looking at it now.” She had been on a morning TV kick for a couple months, and they were covering the story … just like everybody else.

We were on the phone when the cameras were pointed at the building. Eery black smoke wafted from it. Suddenly an airplane entered screen left and hit the other tower.

Profanities flew from my mouth. “Holy shit, did you see that?”

Tina said yes.

We watched in awe as the newscasters tried to say that this must have been a coincidental accident on the same day into the other building. At that point, no one knew anything about anything.

After a few moments, I said, “I’ll call you back. I gotta call my parents.”

I called my parents’ home line. My mom picked up. I was panicking. I asked if she’d seen the news. She said yes. Her words were something to the effect of, “They did it again.”

Key word: “They”.

“Who’s the ‘they’, Mom?” I asked.

She explained it was the same people who bombed the World Trade Center in the 90s. Back then, I didn’t give a shit about such things. I guess I didn’t care. I was a dumb Christian at a dumb school at the time.

Mom explained that the Muslims were probably to blame.

I knew shit about Islam.

At the time, I was a robot. Despite the world changing catastrophic event, I looped my tie, pulled it tight, and went to work. I caught a bus. Pushed myself on a train. It was run of the mill.

At one point, a guy got a phone call. He answered. He said, “In New York? Really?” He hung up and said to a nearby passenger, “Something happened in New York.” The other person said, “What?”

He said, “A plane flew into a building.”

“You didn’t hear?” I piped up. “Two planes flew into buildings in New York City.” I didn’t explain that “They” did it.

I was surprised so many people didn’t know about the attacks. It seemed that the majority of people didn’t know anything. I felt like a celebrity of sorts explaining to the group what happened.

After I got to work, everyone was in the know. People were panicking. The building I worked in was surrounded with cops as it was one of the biggest buildings in the city (but not the tallest).

Soon after the towers collapsed, there was an announcement that we could leave work. I was so scared and out of my mind, I left without Tina.

After a few hours, Tina and I met at her place.

Then, just like everyone else, we watched the news for the next week as America picked up the pieces.

My view of the world would never be the same. I’m not sure many Americans felt any differently.

9/11 gave me the strength to walk away from religion and faith.

For others, it made their faith stronger.

Ahhh, perception.

The new #Arthur remake … what a turd!

We watched the remake of #Arthur last night starring fellow atheist Russell Brand, Jennifer Garner & Hellen Mirren last night, and it sucked hard.

John A. Davison could have written a better script.

Not that we expected much of anything, but you would think that a comedy would include jokes. The movie ended up being the joke, and Tina and I were the punch line for sitting through that turd.

The collective chorus of the American people should be shouting, “Since when did TV get better than movies?”

The studios are putting out just about any turd a group of people can come up with these days.

The director, Jason Winer, is no stranger to comedy. He directed several episodes of Modern Family, and he claims Chicago as the source of his humble beginnings. The local Improv Olympic is on his resume.

Hey Jason, since when did “available light” become an agreeable way to shoot women like Jennifer Gardner and Helen Mirren? Okay, you might have thrown a couple lights in the scenes, but … holy shit … you made Jennifer Gardner looks like hell.

You, sir, should be ashamed.

Who’s idea was that? And what studio approved that lighting throughout the WHOLE movie? Did you bother to hire hair and makeup or did you not get a budget for that either? Everyone looked like they were trampled on in almost every scene.

I’ll go ahead and dump Peter Baynham into the toilet and flush, too. That screenplay sucked.

The whole production team gets a big fart noise for not bothering to polish their own turd.

Hey Jason! Noah Gregoropoulos wants you to take iO off your resume, because associating yourself with them makes them look like shit, too.

If you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do … is avoid this awful movie!

 

 

Stephen Colbert sings the hits

Colbert says, “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

Via Reddit

To the point, I have spoken to Christians who realize they do not live up to Christ’s teachings. Many hide behind the “all have sinned” clause and forget that Jesus spoke of transformation. My Christian upbringing taught me that inviting Jesus into my heart equaled some kind of supernatural change.

It’s simply not true.

Most people want to do good things. The difference between Christians and non is that non-Christians blame ourselves for our shortcomings. Christians blame the devil and construct other scapegoats to hide behind. Or you have this prevalent idea that I will post below the fold that someone posted on my facebook wall yesterday.

Luis V. called it … he is now Soothsayer V.

A full 24 days ago, regular reader Luis V. commented on a post about Donald Trump (Hell Toupee) and said:

So apparently his show, The Apprentice, is up for renewal by NBC on May 16th. After he gets either picked up or dropped, I’m betting he’ll vanish like a fart in the wind (at least for a little while anyway).

In an attempt at modesty, Luis returned yesterday to the post and raised the “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him. Yesterday he wrote:

Boy can I call’em or what!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/16/breaking-trump-not-running-for-president/?hpt=T2

Just as predicted. NBC picked up The Apprentice for another season today (5/16/11)and following the announcement he bows out of the race. All talk and no game Donnie. I for one will not post anything else about you, not after today and certainly not come 2016. As far as I’m concerned, you sir are nothing more than an attention whore. And shame on any network who gives this combovered-douchebag any more time on this issue, now or ever again!

So if you’re in need of a shadow to step under or a human deity to sacrifice a lamb to, please consider Soothsayer V as an option.

Wherefore art thou, Dale Cooper?

Image via Wikipedia

I’m rewatching the two sessions of Twin Peaks on Netflix streaming, and it is just as good or better than when I left it 15 years ago. The show is horrifying, and razor sharp in its writing.

The show shaped a view of the world that I might not have noticed otherwise. Of course there’s a spirituality to the show that is neither here nor there.

But there’s an element of “real life” to the show. When I’m in public, I get excited when I see the same faces. I even name them or give them nicknames. And when I see them, I excitedly say, “There’s Crack Lady!” And there’s Asian hat guy!

While watching the show, you can’t help but say, “There’s log lady!” or “There’s Curtain Lady!” or “There’s the one-armed man!”

It’s a great show.

Here are a couple quotes that I noticed and wanted to write down for later:

“Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this.”  -Dale Cooper

And this one:

It’s usual in cases of strangulation for the victim to void his bowels.

Let it be written, let it be said, I not only miss Dale Cooper, I miss practically every character on that old show.

Two more recommendations

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I dropped some movie recommendations and avoid-a-mendations. Read them here.

I thought of two more recommendations.

• The Godless Girl. It’s Cecille B. DeMille’s 1929 (mostly) silent film about the atheist vs. Christian debate from a 1929 perspective. It was released right on the cusp of talkies, so there are a couple sound scenes in the movie. The perspective is pro-religion, and if you’re not religious, you should be violently persuaded to think otherwise. It’s interesting to see how they try to stuff god’s loving message into the most violent, unappetizing, highest level of scare tactics available. Not to mention, there is a blog written by “Godless Girl.” I’m pretty sure it’s the girl from the movie and Satan is keeping her alive 80 years later to further his diabolical message. Not really. I know Godless Girl. She’s a local, and really quite cool. Her blog is great. Her tweets are good too.
• Twin Peaks the TV show. The gods of netflix have answered one of my many atheist prayers, and that’s to make Twin Peaks available via their streaming service. When I was in 11th grade,  I would race home and watch “my story,” which was the demonically great David Lynch psycho soap opera about the subsequent events that happen after the death of a local school girl named Laura Palmer. On the surface it’s a parody of daytime soap operas, but the horror (and the plot) is better than most horrors available even now.  The story lines were rich with incredible characters. I remember going to bed terrified more often than necessary. And each cliffhanging episode ended with me standing their screaming at the TV. Okay, maybe I wasn’t screaming. But I would stand there tugging on my hair wishing for time travel into the next Thursday’s time slot.  Tina and I have been rewatching the series, and it’s incredible. It still holds its weight in greatness, and if it weren’t for a few bad costume decisions, some of the makeup and wardrobe are timeless and beautiful. It’s the kind of show that makes you think, “If David Lynch produced the bible, it might have given it some better street cred.”