I have been watching a lot of television lately, thanks to Netflix Canada and its outpouring of cheap entertainment. Like many of you, I tend to favor television over cinema these days, because it offers more bang for your buck. Better intrigue. More plotlines. More time spent making your protagonist a complex person. That kind of stuff. Netflix doesn't make it easy on me though, because it has almost only incomplete series. For example, I've been jonesing for the third and fourth season of JUSTIFIED, for a few months and they have yet to make it happen. So here is what I've been watching, this summer. You'll notice (and hopefully forgive) the fragmentary nature of my viewings.
It's the new ''in'' thing. There is a lot of buzz around this Netflix original, apparently taken from a true story. It's good to see the talented Laura Prepon back in action, but it's equally difficult to take Jason Biggs seriously. It's not that he's not winging it, he's just...that dude...who jammed his dick in a pie. The screenwriting bugged me as it doesn't really commit to a vision of the prison universe. Sometimes, there is a real threat looming upon Piper and sometimes, she's just that courageous white girl, winning over her broken inmates in non-conventional ways. Make it gritty or make it bubbly. Don't make it both. We threw the towel about halfway in.
Josie and I would probably still be all tangled up in this, if Season 2 had been available. HOMELAND is exremely bold. It was going to please the frightened, paranoid demographic and ire the shit out of level-headed liberals. It's a series that does its homeworks, though, narratively speaking. It tells the story of the humans behind that sneaky, hypermediatized war. There are no faceless agencies, no faceless, omnipotent enemy. Everybody has a face, feelings and people they care about. If you can manage not to take it personal, it's a great story. Kudos to the ladies, Claire Danes and Morena Baccarin, who hold both ends of the series together and keep it from ever getting boring.
This is what we've been watching lately, thanks to a suggestion from Heath Lowrance. Thanks to Netflix also, we'll be able to keep up, because the entirety of what has been aired so far is available. While it's just a tad gimmicky (everybody has almost a cartoonishly set personality except for Cullen and Elam), it's been thoroughly enjoyable. HELL ON WHEELS is committed to be a gritty, dirty and chaotic take on the Far West and boy, does it live up to its ambitions. It also commits to a visual identity and it's refreshing to watch western fiction that doesn't try to rip off Sergio Leone.Common is a big surprise as Elam. While he's playing a powerhouse leadership figure, his game is all details and subtleties. The man has a bright future in acting.
So, what have YOU been watching?
