Task- Snickerdoodle@yahoo.com and emotional Eater

If there is any show that helped lend credence and meaning to the value of the struggle against injustice and the interconnectedness of everything including the possibility of rot in our justice systems, Prison Break is it. How one brother examines the state of things and determines he must be incarcerated to rescue his brother and how season after season those who have known themselves to be on the right side of the law must bend the same to redeem themselves and how others both innocent and not so innocent struggle to make the best of their lives outside the system. 

I have a feeling at least as far as this first showing has gone, Task also is dealing with the same challenges. 

An aged agent Tom Brandis formerly a priest finds himself at the helm of a rag tag group of recruits trying to solve a spate random looking robberies in a small town. That is not enough though, he must also confront a few challenges on the home front regarding his fractured or splitting family. He does this while at the same time struggling with the almighty bottle. 

Then there is the unimposing garbage man who uses his job as an opportunity to stake out who is doing what in the neighborhood so that he can fuel his need for cash and a better life for his family. Is he in over his head is the questions we will find ourselves asking as he deals with biker gangs with their no uncompromising hierarchical manic devotion to their cause. Add in a few crooked cops and a history of coverups and you have yourself some interesting entertainment. There are questions about loyalty, trust, brotherhood, friendship, hate, betrayal and hope with additional gems of wisdom about life and the preservations of memory. The story reeks of an Eastern Aesthetic though with much too much death and tragedy for a western audience used to happily ever afters.  

I love the the way the members of the task force and introduced hence the title of the post, with the quirky love seeking and messy snickerdoodle Lizzy Stover and the strict and to the point (sharp shooter) always on point Aleah Clinton as well as the loyal Anthony Grasso. 

Comparing Waterfront and The Ozarks. Fair or not?

Waterfront and The Ozarks Compared 

Film critics and a small number of commentators seem to be drawing comparisons between The Ozarks and Waterfront. This in my view is a bit of a reach. 

Yes both are set in quite sizable water bodies and explore the complexities of family relations across the whole relatively rural communities. The two are very different. The Buckley's on one hand have had some history in crime something that they are trying to shed with their fishing business. The Buckley's are also what you could call a prominent family with assets in the local area and connections allowing them some level of privilege. The Byrds on the other hand are just regular blue collar workers who find themselves stuck in a game they had no choice to become a part of. Jason Bateman also carries his role quite well always looking lost and just managing to weave his way through his daily challenges. Holt McCallany on the other hand cuts a more imposing figure. He looks like he has rubbed shoulders with the wrong crowd...he seems seasoned and experienced in the world of crime. The Ozarks also presented a snippet of American Rural life giving us the perspectives from several families all showing different parts of America. The Snell Family, Langmore Family, Byrd Family and then the Navarro Cartel which has fangs in the US and Mexico. 

Hightown

This is an interesting series if you have a mind for historical cities and their decline or at least the challenges they are likely to face. A coastal town stuck or thrust into a modern age and battling the effects of modernization and change. 

It is not likely to be your cup of tea of you are not drawn to the seedy side of life…but who is? These are the realities of life that the creator seeks to explore though. He observes and takes you through the lives of in my view two major characters on the good side and others on the not so good side. You have a lady plagued by a love for the bottle working with the fisheries law enforcement that is trying to get into a mainstream role with the police and a man with a passion for the law but a strong tendency to bend it too when it suits him as well as a weakness for skirts. 

On the whole if you look at these two people you could argue that it is a story about addiction and recovery and to a greater extend struggle and love. 

Then you have another set of antiheroes who have embraced a whole new set of opportunities. They are as often expressed in these shows slit along racial lines. A Hispanic/Dominican Amaury Nolasco who made his name and crafted his art in Prison Break this time taking on the role of a kingpin in the drug trade with a ‘club’ which supplies visual pleasures to men. Then you have an African American rising through the ranks partnering with a young girl who has ambitions of her own. The introduction to the young African American is short and you have no idea what she will become as the show progresses. 

The struggles depicted on addiction are real and the project keeps you glued to the screen hoping for the best for these two people. 

The rest of the show is really a game of chess and chance and a contest of will and minds as good guys and bad guys battle it out for fame and fortune and in some cases truth. 

There are some absolutely amazing scenes where true love is expressed for some at their extreme lowest and those are great to watch. There are also liberating takes on truth and what it means to free oneself from lies and how in some cases this can open one up to more fulfilling relationships. 

Season 1 Fargo

This show starts off with a cryptic note telling the audience of the idea that what they are about to experience (not just watch) is based on real life and true.  This for most means that the tale will be told as is and will be as exciting as watching pain dry on a wall. 

Ah but Fargo season one is a lot more than that. The protagonist is a short and unassuming man trying to do his job as an insurance agent at a small firm in rural America. He has a part ridden with all sorts of sad but funny stories which place him as the underdog in almost all his school years. A local bully still rides him just as hard and to add insult to injury this same bully’s sons have inherited the same disrespect which they shovel out to him in massive amounts. As if this is not enough, he has a sarcastic wife who has made it her mission to berate him and ridicule him on every single act in his home. Martin Freeman delivers on this role with such as sense of innocence and bewilderment all captured in his magical facial expressions. 

During one of his challenging experiences with his childhood foe, a stranger passes through town whose role will be pivotal in the transformation of Lester Nygaard. 

After a series of unexpected events, Lester is thrown into the middle of an investigation in a town that has not seen any crime in a long time. At the helm is the newly promoted Captain (Bob Odenkirk later on to star in Better Call Saul) whose blind trust in the Lester is so annoying. His understudy in the meantime is a lady (Played by Allison Tolman) who will not take no for an answer. She must plow though the evidence at the chagrin of her boss who does everything in her power to steer him away from this case. Everything she turns her hand to seems to yield more and more results with her keen detective eye. 

In this town too there is a single dad whose fears for his daughter are plaguing his judgement after a chance meeting with a visibly cruel man. 

As though this is not enough the aforementioned crime has drawn in a duo of ill intentioned men who will stop at nothing to solve this crime. 

Lester has to deal with the attention he gets from the nosy detective as well as emerge from the shadow of his more popular brother. 

The whole show is really about transformation. The growth of Lester from victim, the attempt by the frightened single father to deal with his fears. The changes that Lester’s sole guardian (naive protector of his high school image) must go through as life’s realities hit his town. 

If there is anything that the show does effectively is make the audience cheer for villains out of understanding as well as appreciate the skill displayed by clearly evil men. What is clear at the end is that justice desk in the end prevail. 

Class of ‘09

Was looking for something great to post and then came across this gem. I watched it…no binged it a few weeks or months ago and enjoyed every bit of it…okay not so much the romance between the two ladies. Anyhow. 

Going with the theme of AI and Data, this is an appropriate series for watch. 

It is done in an interesting way featuring the cast in three major timelines past, present and future. 

Anyone who loves to see what it takes to become a Federal Agent will appreciate this show. There is a slight obsession with power for those who like these types of shows. Maybe it is the feeling you get when you walk into onto a crime scene and the cops have to make room: for you because it is a case that transcends borders and the local sheriff no longer has jurisdiction (at least the movies tell us this much). 

There is a story about how one person’s amazing attempt to stop crime through profiling and prediction goes all wrong. Maybe this is a look into the future with all the data that we are collecting and all the records that our systems have about people in our world. Maybe this is a conversations about the three strike rule (a law that punishes offenders if they commit crimes repeatedly and sets a limit to three-seemingly turning crime into a baseball game). 

The cast director was spot on in the choice of characters as were the actors in all the moral dilemmas they portray. 

My favorite and most troubling scene comes a little later in the show when a car is disabled remotely after some kind of violation. I guess it is not too sci-if given that this is possible with many cars today but transition from control to self-driving and then remote control is quite troubling. 

There are ways in which this show takes from some of the ideas in Eagle Eye at least in part with the immense power that is surrendered to the system when it takes over all operations and after some form of consciousness begins to make use of all devices with chips in them. 

Citadel

 

I have posted the standard Wikipedia summaries that I usually enjoy in this piece. What we have done differently is simply release them as images. So you have a very brief image describing the show as well as the central characters and then you have what some of the critics said about the film. 

In my view it was a good show. The action scenes were really intense. You could say they were ‘Johnwickesqe’ clearly the style of close shooting in the series featuring the famed actor from the a John Wick movies was employed here. The rapid fire shots to the head and the gore that emerges from this. The use of multiple fighting styles that seems to almost be dance like. Then there is the choice of characters. Stanley Tucci is amazing with his one liners his wit and his nonchalance. Lesley Manville excels in her presentation of a brutal and calculating minister with a history in the world of espionage and abound to pick with her adversaries. She is conniving and cruel. The twins I like the most with the bearded look they are an unusual pair of viscous villains. We are accustomed to other types of antiheroes…maybe slightly thinner and taller with darker hair. We might even see the occasional white haired or even black tall bad guy. But a bearded one is a fresh look and the actor does this role justice. I like the way the film takes you through the complex histories of the main characters and the decisions that they have to make. I like the love story that is woven in the series and the issues that divined those who chose a life in service of a greater good. This is what the show portrays the life of espionage involving the greater good of not just nations but serving on a global scale. There is an interesting line in the series in which the two doomed lovers are confronted with their feelings and a statement is made to the effect of “you cannot be a spy and a saint at the same time”. 

Then there are other issues such as memory that are explored. Maybe even the idea of life after death in the sense that those who go and maybe return must make the choice to live on or relive their past lives and meet their old loves in a new frame? There are also interesting explorations about memory and the idea that these can be preserved and maybe even wiped by the push of a button. 

Overall I would say maybe 80% for me. For the combination action, history, the exploration of science, global dynamics, relationships, love, broader themes like justice and equity.