The Old Ship of Zion - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 4-08 "The Old Ship of Zion"

Written by Howard Korder of several season four episodes, and Cristine Chambers who was show creator Terrence Winter's assistant on The Sopranos and has worked as a producer on Boardwalk.  This is her first writing credit.  Congratuations!

Directed by Tim Van Patten.  Here he is talking about Tony Soprano, "Don't Stop Believing" and the end of The Sopranos

It's not surprising that one of the most Chalky-centric (if not the most) is one of my favorite.  Of recent note, Chalky has fallen to Narcisse's alluring, but planted, singer at his club.  Distracted by the girl just as neighborhood denizens are distracted by upstanding front Narcisse puts up, and the young men in the neighborhood are distracted by Narcisse's heroin, Chalky's unaware of the problems under his nose, like the heroin craze being led by his confidant, Purnsley.

Purnsley's always been rash.  While Narcisse succeeded in pulling the frustrated Purns away from Chalky, he hasn't tempered his violent way of being.  Unsurprisingly, Purns kills the deacon, a community leader and attracts heat.  This in turn gives Chalky a wake up call when he attends the deacon's funeral and feels the stares from those he watched over until recently.  So Chalky goes on a thuggery expedition to a known heroin house to find some answers, though his prime person of interest is gunned down (by Purns, out of Chalky's sight, so to not implicate Purns) before he can ask him anything.  He does recover a flyer to Narcisse's play, which points him in the right direction.

The unrest leads to other consequences including the mayor's re-election chances, which leads him to seek out Nucky for help and Nucky's response initially is one of many bosses out there which is "you figure it out, this is your job".  But ultimately, Nucky checks in on Chalky and how things are sitting.  He doesn't mention the mayor's re-election, or that the mayor is the reason he is there, but inquires more generally about how Chalky is doing.  And while Chalky's initially defensive, I think he can see that Nucky is sincerely coming to him as a friend and that there is room for improvement in his house.  Nucky's been playing a sage-like role all season, with a gentle, wise and confident touch.

Chalky crashes and burns next.  He crashes Narcisse's performance (which seems to combine the old timey-ness of Boardwalk with the pretentiousness of Narcissese).  He slow claps everyone out of the theatre with a stick and garbage can lid in a bit of Michael K-awesomeness.  When the patrons come out, he stands there like Bill the Butcher, calling out Narcissese and implicating him as the bringer of heroin.  Ever the recycler, Chalky uses the lid as a pan to hold the heroin and then light it on fire, giving off an impressive, badass flame.  It looks the entire time like violence is going to erupt but the staredown that takes place instead is worth any number of bones broken by bat wielding thugs.

Narcisse dispatches back-stabbing enthusiast Purns to take out Chalky while he's distracted by the Narcisse's stage heroine  But more lucid now, Chalky picks up that everything is not okay, so when Purns shows up like Tessio setting up Michael for Barzini, he knows it's been Purns all along.  And the violent struggle that ensues is one of the most graphic in recent memory, mostly due to the stabbing of Purns in the face.  IN THE FACE!  He has the upper hand until, under "comes around, what goes around", he is stabbed in the back, and wow is that knife deep.

Chalky finally managed to have Narcisse meet him in the open field of battle, something he could not do previously.  This arena favors Chalky.

• Knox pressuring Eli about Nucky via Will, who's interning in the mayor's office, who needs Chalky for the black vote
• And the plot lines are slowly being tied together
• Mickey is annoying even for Mickey in this episode until, again, he's whacked on the head in public.  Nothing like being thrown from a second story onto a table, but significant enough that he stops annoying Nucky
• It speaks more to Nucky's awareness of exactly how much pressure to apply
• Time check: a newspaper references storms in MS and AL, but I'm not positive it's these, which seem to early in the year.  It seems not enough time has passed since the last few episodes for that to be right.  Also, everyone is fanning themselves in the church, but the weather does not seem particularly hot.  So...no idea.
• Purns orders Moses to cut the heroin because if shit is weak they gonna sell twice as much, but if the government do better it don't mean no nevermind
• String would directly contrast this in later episodes, perhaps due to his economics education
• Body count (2 - 19 total)
• RIP Moses - Purns in Moses' office with the pistol.  Shoots him thrice in the chest and once through the head to keep him from telling Chalky who (Purns) was running things at the house.  Purns plants the sawed off in time for Chalky to see but still gets an earful about how quick he was to shoot and his lack of interest in taking names
• RIP Purns - Daughter (had to look this name up) in the bedroom, driving a giant freaking knife into his back.   She has a change of heart and defends Chalky despite setting him up.  Chalky with the assist for stabbing Purns through the cheek and wow was that gross

"Take care, and God bless!"

The Yoga Play - HL

Homeland episode 3-05 "The Yoga Play"

Written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, Homeland executive producers

Directed by Clark Johnson.  Here's a scene from his Homicide days where he encounters Luther Mahoney/Brody's heroin-inducing doctor.  He gives a speech that Mike Erhmantraut fans will appreciate.


After going full Nellie Bly and rotting in a nuthouse for a while, all in the name of what a great spy she is, Carrie decides things are going too well and does her best to undo all the progress made so far.  The op is still too small to have an inner circle, but Saul does expand their inner line segment to an inner triangle by bringing in Peter Quinn.  Because if you are going to pick teams, Peter Quinn is your first pick.  In fact, you can have the next nine if I can pick first.  Then I'll pick Mike Erhmantraut because you wouldn't have picked him due to him being old, and I'll win with just those guys. 

Quinn and Saul both admonish Carrie for her behavior, risking the op, and they aren't even aware they flushed her meds.  Oh yeah, Carries off her meds again, hooray.  So we can look forward to a lot more crazy-eyed shrillness in the coming episodes I guess.  Her yo-yoing from sanity to insanity is so incredibly tiresome and uninteresting.  Rescue Me was at its best when Tommy was going on long stretches of sobriety or drunkeness, rather than going into recovery every other week.  Right now, Carrie is at the same level of annoying as Elizabeth and Phillips' hot/cold relationship on The Americans.

So Carrie jeopardizes everything on a whim.  The kicker is Dana comes home through no action of Carrie's.  Her FBI guy's reaction is not unreasonable considering the actions taken to date, the most likely reason for the runaway and the fact that it is not their problem.

The titular yoga play she uses to nag the FBI guy is a cool bit of spycraft but has little effect except to possible make Javadi doubt Carrie's position.

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, Saul begins the first verse of a country song.  He is invited to hang out with the cool kids and do dumb stuff that seems cool to the cool kids for what is ostensibly a reason to feel Saul out for the full time director gig, specifically questioned by Senator Keith Olbermann (SKO) from the hearings earlier this season.  Unfortunately the Red Viper is not in sight.  Saul feels good and deigns to take a drink when offered.

They camouflage themselves and await the enemy because that is their only method of survival.  Oh wait, they are waterfowl hunting and not WWII Japanese soldiers.  Let me start over...they sit in a hut and wait to shoot unsuspecting birds which they most likely will not clean and eat themselves while a dog fetches their corpses because they don't want to give away their position to the birds, or get off their butts.

Pretty soon, SKO goes full mean girl on Saul revealing that it is he who shall be nominated!  SKO is sure to do so only after being fake nice to Saul and after Saul implicates himself as to his far differing views and how he will not fit well in the new SKO CIA regime.

The crux of Saul's disagreement is that he believes human intelligence (HUMINT) is far better than anything technology can bring about, despite all of HUMINT's inherent vulnerabilities (specifically Brody).  Saul trusts his officers to act as needed in their situations, in which they are half blind, working off script and trying to discern good information from bad, all in a completely unrealistic timeframe.  SKO has made a career throwing stones at the agency he means to head, but now he's going to have to work with those same people he criticizes and realize once he gets in the weeds, he's not going to be able to sit on high from drones (OR HUNTING HUTS) and take care of business from afar.

 Basically, SKO is every politician and appointee ever.

Saul, drinking upon having this news, gives a toast to SKO's nomination saying as much as he said previously to SKO, but he does it in front of everyone, then drops the mic and heads home a day earlier to find his wife and a dude, pre-bang (but barely pre).  So verse two of the country song starts.  Ugh what a night.  Plus he has to deal with Carrie's nonsense and possibility she blew the op..

Good news though, she's kidnapped! 

Carrie is making decisions on the fly that make no sense but speak to Saul's point of trusting HUMIT rather than shooting ducks from a hiding spot.

• No matter how much you try, you cannot shoot the dog
• I don't think that being averse to conflict is a quality one would want in a chief of staff.  What a wimp.
• "555" telephone numbers are the worst and most jarring thing shows do to take viewers out of them.  
• When Turk changed his number on Scrubs to 916-CALL-TUR(K)  they actually purchased the 916-CALL-TUR and viewers could call to get a real voice message 
• It doesnt work now, I just tried it
• And Lost had multiple DHARMA-related numbers viewers could call
• Unclear who is surveying whom.  Is it the Javadi people surveiling Carrie?  And CIA surveilling them?  And Quinn surveilling them all?  It seems to be so because Saul is so pleased when her surveillers/kindnappers re-appear.  Not sure if the CIA from say, Dar Adal's unit is watching her too.  I'm unclear who Quinn blocked in his car, if that was CIA or Javadi.  
• Pretty soon with enough coats of paint this room is going to be two inches smaller
• I think it is Carrie < Javadi < Quinn but I am not positive
• Javadi strolls in via the politically uninteresting but super important in practice Canadian border
• I assume Abu Nazir took this route in Season Two.  "Oh so unrealistic!!!!!!!!"
• Javadi drops ketchup on himself and makes a stain.  On Lost we'd all be like "WHAT DOES THE KETCHUP MEAN?!"
• Unclear if his burger was Halal.  I hope it was Five Guys.
• Dana is not a stupid girl.  She wisens up and dumps Bad News.
• "K4" (as I heard it) is not K4/K-Four but KFOR, Kosovo Force

And so begins the second movement....

This fiction doesn't seem real

SPOILER - If you have not watched Homeland Season Two (2012), move along.  Move along.

I always get a kick out of when a supposedly unrealistic storyline is panned, only to have it pointed out that the basis of the story actually did happen in real life.

Jason Alexander complained to Larry David that George Costanza was behaving unrealistically in  particular situation until David told Alexander that the situation actually happened to him and he behaved in the manner written in the script.

I can remember at the end of West Wing Season Six some found it unrealistic that Matt Santos would nominate Leo, with his health problems, as his vice president.  It was pretty simple to point out Dick Cheney, who has had five heart attacks, won two elections for veep.

Though you may want to see an example actually found in the press...

An episode of Newsroom ran featuring election night 2010, where the Tea Party swept into Congress.  Will posed a question about the debt ceiling and was trashed in this review for being clairvoyant, indicative of the show being written sanctimoniously with the benefit of hindsight, even though there were similar questions at the time about whether the GOP would threaten the debt ceiling. 

Homeland Season Two strode into bizarre territory with its storylines, including international blackberry texting to warn about attacks, chasing down a terrorist with nothing but a pipe, and a car accident with Friday Night Lights Season Two-esque consequences.

One of the almost too unbelievable storylines was the Abu Nazir terror network trying to murder the veep via hacking into his pacemaker. In quite possibly the most -24- scene of the series, exactly that occurs.  It's ridiculous, but also highly entertaining and exciting and memorable, as shows often are with a lead or secondary character's death.

In this past Sunday's 60 Minutes, a piece focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney's health says "not that ridiculous..."

In 2007, when Cheney needed his implanted defibrillator replaced, Dr. Reiner ordered the manufacturer to disable the wireless feature - fearing a terrorist could assassinate the vice president by sending a signal to the device, telling it to shock his heart into cardiac arrest.

Cheney goes on to directly address his perception of the Homeland scene.

Well, I was aware of the danger, if you will, that existed but I found it credible. Because I know from the experience we had and the necessity for adjusting my own device that it was an accurate portrayal of what was possible.

Who'd have thought that?  I generally have a high level of suspending disbelief for television, especially my favorite shows.  If Breaking Bad wants to make a leap to bring the plot along, they get the benefit of the doubt.  If Homeland wants to do an absurd hit and run, I'll see where it goes. 

Truth stranger than fiction.  So I allow a lot of latitude when watching a show, rather than point out seemingly obvious flaws.  Because, after all, it is fiction.  And a hit and run may actually be a plot device used to drive a wedge between the politically chummy Brody and veep families. 

More than the realism of plot points, I'm interested in watching how carefully constructed characters react to these plot points.  The better the characters are constructed, the more lenient one can be with the plot's realism.  Frankly, I find it a lot more offensive to the brain when a character is acting out of character or a continuity error occurs than when the fictional plot doesn't seem like non-fiction.

William Wilson - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 4-07 "William Wilson"

Written by series creator Terrence Winter and David Matthews, of this season's "All In" which also featured a good amount of Chicago/Cicero action, as well as A.R.

Directed by Jeremy Podeswa of Homeland's "In Memoriam"

• The second title this season to come from one of Lil' Thompson's Temple lectures
• All Poe narrations need to be voiced in a Vincent Price timbre, even those that pre-date the Vincent Price recordings
• Two pop culture Poe references: "The Tell Tale Moozadell" which included this great Dragnet-esque scene from which the title comes and "Lisa's Rival"
• They open with a Looney Tunes-esque circle transition on the streets of Chicago, where a cop is shot in the face.  IN THE FAAAAAAAAACE!
• Esther Randolph returns.  The stark male domination of these circles is deftly shown when the new AG welcomes all the gentlemen and then her by name (rather than ladies and gentlemen) at the dinner celebrating Hoover's appointment
• Andrew Mellon has not had much to do considering he's a relatively well know historic figure who they cast a "name" actor for
• Everyone is literally selling swampland to suckers lately
• Not the best investment unless you turn it into DisneyWorld
• Much is made about Nucky's ability to suss out these scams, and read people so well, so it's surprising he doesn't think much of Eli's concern about "Knox"
• Halfway through the season, Ron Livingston has made zero impact, except as a sucker for Gillian, attached to her for no reason apparent to us
• Gillian has largely been in isolation from everyone as well this season, and it's hard to imagine if this story ties into anyone else
• Compare that impact to Margaret's three or four scenes so far this season.  You can feel something coming with her now
• "Hanky" should not be in this many grown men's vernacular
• Musical stage performance which manages to not draw the same ire of those found on Treme
• AR is so cool and confident when he sees Peg of Old that I can't tell if he went to see her on purpose and expected her, doesn't recognize her at all, slowly recognizes her during the encounter or recognizes her by chance encounter and keeps it under his hat. 
• From the follow up call it appears it was by chance and he recognized her immediately.  The $100 appears to be both out of kindness and to ensure her silence, even though she would be putting herself in the jackpot to spread around that their paths crossed
• So, Nucky/McCoy/Lansky/Petrucelli are in on some real estate, as are Joe Tthe Boss/Luciano/Petrucelli, and separately, AR
• O'Banion's all like "O'Dear! The police!" which is pretty much the least effective ruse possible to deal with Torrio.  We know O'Bannion bites it later in 1924  
• He seems intent on making enemies where adverse relations could easily be avoided
•  While Narcisse introduces heroin to the community, he manages to appear publicly as an upstanding community member who wants nothing more than to rid the very scourge he is peddling to people there.  And is able to do so because he has Chalky distractedly hooked on something else, he's able to fill a role that Chalky is known and loved for
• Body count - 2 (17 for the season, they've really taken it easy lately)
• RIP Rando policeman, murdered by Capone henchman in the middle of the street with a gunshot to the FACE
• RIP Deacon, murdered by Purnsley in the church with the knife.  Pro tip: don't tell the person who is secretly dealing heroin that you're going to tell his boss he's secretly dealing heroin, especially when he's a murderer

"Take care, and God bless!"

Game On - HL

Homeland episode 3-04 "Game On" which brings to mind Jed Bartlet's last debate

Written by James Yoshimura, previously of Homicide: Life on the Street

Directed by David Nutter, of the final two Game of Thrones episodes this season, including"  The Rains of Castamere"

TWIST!

Have you seen The Prestige?  If you haven't, it's going to be for the 2000s what LA Confidential is for the 1990s, retrospectively one of the best movies of the decade.

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"."

"Are you watching closely?" Because the entire season just turned around at "Game On"'s conclusion.  It could be called "The Prestige".  A reveal like this one does not only change the game going forward, but forces the viewer to think about the previous three episodes differently.

While Saul still cared for and about Carrie these past episodes, he had a role to fulfill as acting director of the CIA, which meant that part of restoring the credibility of the agency was to find a patsy for its shortcomings, or at least to find a way to draw attention away from the agency itself.  With Carrie, they had the opportunity to not only present a fall girl, but pile it on so much that they would create a target ripe for the picking by the enemy.  Sources, whether for newspaper articles for intelligences agents, are often people who feel they've been wronged in a way by their country/employer, so it was easy to turn Carrie into someone who, from the enemy's point of view, fit that profile.

So, like the Dark Knight, Carrie allows herself to be publicly smeared in the interest of a greater good. 

It's unclear when Carrie and Saul hatched this plan, but a Q&A with Alex Gansa says it came about (off screen, obviously) at the end of season two almost immediately following the 12/12 bombing.  What makes it more unclear, is the interaction between Saul and Carrie at the end of "Uh...Oh...Ah" when Carrie, in a private moment between them, says "Fuck you, Saul".  This is apparently one of the points where Saul had to go off book.  While that muddies the waters as to the details of their plan, it gives a whole new meaning to Saul's response "I'm...so...sorry".  It's been strange to see what we've seen of Saul this season, but I had chalked it up to his new role and separating the man from the office in a Jed Bartlet presidency sort of way.  Her reaction to the hearing appears in a completely different way too now.  She had showed no urgency to see what was going on with Saul's testimony, and I think her reaction was pained in a way that she knew it was coming but surprised at how difficult it still was to hear.

At this point he apparently cuts off communication with her, giving new rationale to Carrie trying to get a message to Saul via her Dad.  Was she going to give up on the operation?  One could not blame her, being in the dark about Saul's plans.

When the target reveals itself to give Carrie a 24 hour furlough, she kicks back into spy mode.  Alone and alienated by everyone without access to travel or money, Carrie is so vulnerable Javadi LLC follows her and picks her up at her mountain biker's house.

Mission: Impossible 2 was on TNT this weekend and a major plot point is that after IMF recruits Nyah Nordoff Hall, international thief, they need her to infiltrate Sean Ambrose's inner circle. Knowing it will look suspicious if she simply shows up at his doorstep, they put out every kind of police alert in the book on her, expecting Ambrose to catch wind, extract her from Madrid and bring her to his house in Australia himself.  Javadi LLC essentially does the same thing with Carrie.

Part of the twist no doubt is supposed to rely on us thinking Carrie has turned, but that's not something I bought.  Following her meeting with Javadi & Partners, I thought her (understandable) fear of being re-institutionalized was dominating at that moment and she was simply buying time until she could figure something out, feeding them useless information in the meantime.  While Brody was turned to a double agent about this time last year, Carrie goes TRIPLE agent here and now.  It's the labyrinth of mirrors. 

The plotting for this is a lot like Justified, which I personally consider the best plotted show on television*.  Season Three has combined events that would make total sense in the real world (scapegoating) with the natural reactions of the characters (Carrie and Saul's devotion, duty and competence) within the universe they've created (terrorists everywhere, especially Caracas) to connect everything in a way that is both completely reasonable and shocking.  And it sets up beautifully to connect the three points of focus this season, Iran, the CIA and Venezuela, in a completely organic way.

* Also, my favorite show on television.  They are the best or near best at a lot of things.

• Dar Adal asks Saul about a DOJ paper, which he uses to continue Carrie's confinement.  Only mentioning this because my Google machine tells me Dar Adal could roughly be translated to  Abode of Justice, which is basically DOJ.
• Laundering terror money through Venezuelan soccer teams brings to mind laundering drug money through Columbian soccer teams, leading to very rich teams and an incredibly successful Columbian soccer league.  
• See "The Two Escobars" covering Pablo Escobar (drug lord) and Andres Escobar (murdered soccer player)
• Had to laugh at Carrie's cooperation and participation in craft time at the nuthouse.  Please show me the birdhouse she made
• Carrie lives in Adams Morgan!
• Mike returns.  We like Mike because he drinks Rolling Rock.
• As good as the Carrie/Saul stuff was, that's how bad the Dana stuff is.  Scenes like the infuriating one with Leo's parents (my child would never do that!) and openly persecuting Jess and Dana for Brody's crimes fall so flat it makes me thankful for those scenese in Justified where one and two scene characters are better fleshed out than leads on other shows**
• Good to see Virgil and a coded message
• Carrie robs the guy date  spending her last dollar on a cab. But she doesn't take all of it, just some so he'll likely not notice or at least be unsure how much was there. If she took it all that'd b  obvious an  could lead to other problems easily avoided
• They love the paralells in an episode's plotlines, with Carrie (trying to get) on the run and Dana on the run
• Leo is trouble.  He's going to try to talk Dana into a suicide pact, which is apparently his thing.
• And I'm not even going to pay the time of day to figure out what this poem meant because everything after "Ozymandias" falls short
• DC area!  Carrie goes by Rock Bottom Brewery in, I assume, Arlington
• If you are the sort of person who likes Homeland, this will be a favorite.  The thing about this twist is that as far as I can tell it was not even a glimmer in the eye of the craziest crazed conspiracy Internet poster.  
• If you are the sort of person who likes to complain, then there is plenty to complain about (Dana) and you will probably also not like the twist

 ** One of those other things Justified is so good at, including a character who had two scenes two years apart, didn't say a word and still absolutely killed it, even getting a laugh

EDIT 10/22 - More on the twist

The North Star - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 4-06 "The North Star"

Written by Eric Overmeyer of The Wire and Treme and Howard Korder of earlier this season.

Directed by Allen Coulter of.....let's say The Sopranos "D-Girl"

Previously: Everything but Chicago and Gillian

• Also watching the first innings of Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries.  Considering that the years 1890-1929 can all be considered "old-timey" it feels an appropriate thing to watch while 
• Breaking news alert: Margaret shows up!  But her spectacular hair unfortunately does not so the meeting between her and Nucky is very ho hum.  They meet in, I guess, Penn Station.  Peg of Old clearly wants to get it over and done with volunteering just enough information to provide a vague picture, but not any specificity to let Nucky know what she's up to on a daily basis. Nucky is understanding about her reticence and decides to pull back on telling her about Eddie's long walk off a short window sill
• Knox's investigation is compromised by Eddie's suicide.  Their informant gone, J. Edgar wants to focus resources more prudently on anarchists, troublemakers and rabblerousers like Emma Goldman (who inspired McKinley assassin Leon Czolgosz.  
• So Knox has to figure something out
• Mickey is surprisingly squeamish about going through Eddie's stuff.  He and Eli find what they are looking for though and go to the bank to empty Eddie's boxes.  The bank is surprisingly, almost shockingly, by the book about these things and Eli isn't getting anywhere, even though it seems like ID fraud would be so! easy!  It seems like one of those problems he's going to have to figure out himself though if he's going to succeed to head up operations in Jersey
• Which he does, turning the weakness/annoyance/threat of the g-man (Knox) into an apparent asset - though unwittingly supplying evidence against himself in the process.  
• Unclear if Eli's tears were crocodile tears, or if he had suspicions about Knox, but they are either confirmed or raised and quickly confirmed when Knox hands over a handkerchief with a monogram that does not match his own
• it's all very Donnie Brasco/Departed-esque.  I half expect Knox to tell someone "I have to find...myself!"  He's turned around so many times it's starting to get confusing where his allegiances lie
• Chalky is continually annoyed by Narcisses' plant, communicating "fuck you" with his eyes as a reply to everything she says.  Then they hook up
• I have to turn away from my television after a close up of an eye during a medical exam, fearing it may get poked or stabbed suddenly and I'll have to stop watching the show forever
• Turns out it's just jaundiced.  Phew
• While Justified is the subject matter expert on "Blonde women bartendresses wielding shotguns" Boardwalk decides to submit an amateur entry after Nucky's friend is harrassed by some of Dewey Crowe's (of Justified) kin/ancestors
• Of note is Meyer Lansky's increasing influence and competence.  For example, McCoy confuses Eli and Eddie when offering condolences to Nucky when it appears he should know who Nucky's brother is.  Lansky, completely unprompted and surprising Nucky with his thoughtfulness, offers condolences, correctly, for Eddie
• Body Count - 0?

Tracking Knox, he is introduced and plays the rube.  Then he murders a fellow g-man.  A corrupt one, but it's murder.  And he murders the guy he pins it on.  So he's an "at all costs" type?  He continues to take bribes from Eli.  But then he tries to flip Eddie and it's a fine line between blackmail and leverage.  When he pushes a bit this episode, that may be when he arouses Eli's suspicion.  So he has the lattitude to perform criminal activity on behalf of Nucky's people in the interest of keeping his cover.  But he's reporting back directly to the director of the B of I and seems to have a closer relationship with him than others do, evidenced by him calling him "Edgar"

"Take care, and God bless!"

Tower of David - HL

Homeland Episode 3-03 "Tower of David"

Written by Henry Bromell and William Bromell.  Henry passed away in March.  He won a posthumous Emmy for last season's "Q&A" (where Brody confesses).  He also worked on Homicide in the 90s (along with Homeland producer James Yoshimura).  This is the only credit listed for William.

Directed by Clark Johnson, who played Lewis on Homicide, Gus on The Wire, and directed episodes of both include the first and last Wire.

• Brody's having a particularly bad day.  My lousy day often involves missing my bus.  Brody's includes being shot and bleeding in the bed of a pickup truck.
• All these guys are speaking in Spanish and there are no subtitles for us, which I assume means they want us to understand the disorientation Brody feels, being in a place where he can't communicate
• The bullet wound is not explained, but it's reasonable to assume someone wanted to collect on the reward and he caught one during his escape.
• The doctor appears to be American
• This actor, Erik Dellums, played medium-term villain Luther Mahoney on the fifth season of Homicide.  Even in episodes he did not appear, the character loomed large, as well as after his time on the show was finished with the effects of the investigation stretching out all the way to the end of Season Six.
• Luther Mahoney was essentially the forerunner to Avon Barksdale
• Speaking of The Wire, Dellums also played a coroner on the show
• Besides most recently getting himself shot, Brody has all kinds of scars and marks on himself making it look like it's been a rough go the whole time
• It appears the United States has extradition treaties with both Columbia and Venezuela but how they are enforced is very much a matter that's in the air
• This is brought to you by cursory research
• It's unclear if these guys are connections via Carrie's people movers, or if they are some sort of Abu Nazir understudy group keeping him alive
• Thirty one minutes into what appears to be an all-Brody show Carrie appears and is willing to play ball to get out of the insane asylum
• Nothing like telling a crazy person to calm down and stop acting crazy to get them to calm down and stop acting crazy
• Someone's there to see her.  She think's it's Saul.  So it's not Saul.  I think it's Quinn, but I'm wrong, which puts me in the company of Carrie which is just great.  It turns out it's a lawyer looking to help her out.  Carrie thinks it's a ruse by a foreign government or terror organization.  Which means they'll probably lead us to believe that this is wrong until Carrie is ultimately vindicated.
• At one point Carrie goes into the bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror.  Then she does exactly what we think she's going to do and smashes her head against the mirror.  Because when television characters stare at themselves in the bathroom mirror they're likely to do one of several things 
• inflict pain on themselves
• Cry and watch their tears flow down their face
• Barf  
• Brody's not getting the message RE: Next Steps.  He believes there are more action items in the strategic plan for escape and movement of suspected 12/12 bombers
• He decides to go off book.  His plan is not peer reviewed so some of the flaws are not identified.  His indicators of success seem to be "escape" or "not escape" but beyond that it's not thought out very well.  Which lands him in solitary. 
• He is offered heroin and offered it thrice, he finally ties one on.  But not until after he's placed in a jail cell not unlike what he saw during his time as a POW.  I bet this technically keeps whatever agreement these people have with Carrie and her four times removed escape people where they are in fact keeping him out of sight and safe from arrest

Aloha ke kahl I ke kahl

Following McGarret and Wo Fat's escape, gunmen hit Five-O headquarters.  McGarret must turn on his own in order to find Catherine (high def) (iffy for 15+)

Previously on Hawaii Five O
Kono's crime lord boyfriend's brother was surprisingly in jail but got out to see CLBF, which resulted in him getting dead by CLBF and Kono and CLBF fleeing Hawaii.  Also, McGarret realizes his mom went to see Wo Fat in prison.  So McGarret sees Wo Fat (who is the Chairman from Iron Chef)

So McGarret shoots a billion dudes and breaks him out.

THEME MUSIC!

This week on Hawaii Five O
McGarret drags one of the dudes out for questioning....

Kono looks longingly at the sea as her and CLBF stand Jack and Rose style at the head of the boat.  There's a lot of talk about starting over "you and me, us"  which, yes, that's what 'us' means.

McGarret is interrogating the guy he was dragging through the wreckage, but the guy appears to be passed out due to the "bullet in his shoulder" which McGarret points out to him.  So, no go on the info.

Jin's magic police machine spits out all the information on McG's prisoner who is "terrorist royalty" in the National Liberation Movement (NLM) which makes McG's questioning pointless.  Anyways, he's a drug running kidnapping murderer.

The Five O HQ security guys are making people take their laptops out of their bags and their shoes off but one girl doesn't want to and instead pulls out a machine gun and shoots the guy in the face.  IN THE FAAAAACE!   Bummer.  Oh it turns out she's part of a team all dressed in different disguises.  One is the delivery girl.  One is a business man and one is dressed as Desmond from Lost.  Wait...

They are all speaking with Spanish accents.  Jin tries to warn McG but his cell phone service cuts out which means he's totally going to call his provider when this is done.  Ch/J-in escapes but can't do anything but watch his magic police machine be destroyed by two of the terrorists so good thing he already ran the info on the terrorist royalty.

Police assemble outside and Hiro runs over to the police captain.  He isn't so much concerned about the hostages as the Five O team.  The principal from Boston Public is dressed in a bullet proof vest as well and comments in a serious manner that the terrorists "came to play."

The terrorists aren't able to free McG's prisoner because he's already gone.  There's a fourth member of the team who is distracted by Jin's cell phone which seems to be working.  Ch/J-in jumps him and puts him in a sleeper hold because good guys don't kill unless they have to.

McG and Danno are with the guy they were trying to kill (Ricardo) and then questioning and now they are trying to give him CPR while also covering their back.  Danno decides this is the time to talk over his girl problems with McG and McG says once you say "I love you" you can't unsay it, which is sound advice.

Wait, where is Wo Fat?  I know McG told Danno to take care of him but Danno didn't really go anywhere to take care of it.

Speaking of McG and love, his girlfriend is on the side of the road when she has car problems.  She checks them out and her car is obviously sabotaged and the obvious saboteurs pull over to ask if she needs any help.

Outside 5-0
Principal strips off his police gear down to his underwear, knocks on the door and offers Desmond David Hume chinese food.  DDH tells him to go away.  Principal returns and reports specs on hostiles and hostages, along with how much ammo they have
"Let's get hot guys, we're going in"

Inside 5-0
One of the terrorists finds Ricardo.  He's bloody but standing in a doorway.  He lowers his weapons and says "Ricardo!".  But then a bullet flies out of Ricardo's shoulder and right into his heart!  IN THE HEAARRT!  Sucker, turns out McG was standing right behind him with the gun to his back and shot THROUGH HIS SHOULDER and hit you directly in the heart.  Actually, this happened on Justified not long ago.

Desmond is not happy when McG gets on the radio and demands they show themselves.  Threatening to kill a hostage, he counts down, but just before he gets to 'one' the elevator opens and Danno and McG come out.

Desmond checks on Ricardo and asks him Esta bien?  Ricardo says 'gracias' so Desmond shoots him in the chest until he is dead.  After that, Desmond surrenders and Five O is perplexed.

COMMERCIAL!

Everyone walks out and McG posits they wanted to kill Ricardo to make sure he doesn't talk.  But Jin wonders why they'd do that and become liabilities themselves and tells McG about the two terrorists who took data from the magic police machine before they destroyed it.

Aw man, at that point, McG gets a call from Catherine's saboteur's who demand that McG gets the prisoners (Desmond & Co.) out.

"No time to explain, I'll explain on the way."

So McG takes Danno's car because Danno isn't allowed to drive and it's a Camaro because the show is sponsored by Chevy.  Danno says the plan to let the prisoners go is stupid but McG says he lost his dad and he won't lose Catherine which doesn't really make sense but everything McG does is motivated by his dad's death so it's actually in his character.  It's also in Danno's character to put up token resistance to McG's stupid plans but then acquiesce.

So McG runs the prisoner transport off the road and lets the prisoners go.  Desmond & Co.  The principal wants to know what's going on but McG says there's no time to explain and then takes a few minutes setting the prisoners free. Desmond takes the keys to the Camaro and is off.

McG meets Catherine in the jungle where she was being held hostage.

Ch/J-in follows Desmond until they stop the car and shoot at Ch/J-in a billion times.  It's just cover fire because they throw a bomb into the Camaro and it explodes as they trade in the Camaro for another car, probably a Chevy, that's waiting for them.

Then there's a Chevy sponsor bumper saying it's the official ride of HFO.

Then there's a Camaro commercial.

So McG, Danno and Catherine meet up with Ch/J-in and discuss the blowed up Camaro until the principal and Honolulu police show up.  He calls McG's plan an epic fail the size of Texas.  He continues on to say the McG is a rogue cop who does things his own way despite the consequences.  They agree to meet at the playground to fight later but catch the terrorists now.  Trying to figure out how the terrorists are going to escape, the police captain mentions a news helicopter was stolen earlier today and he forgot to mention it until now which prompts McG to say there's only one place they could be...

The subtitle says "Aloha Stadium", so the police set up a road block on the way there.  THey puncture all the tires and shoot the car in the windshield so it flips over.  While the car is capsized the guys in the car start shooting at the cops.  Turns out Desmond and the girl and the other guy are all dead now.  But one got away!!!

It's the guy who was holding Catherine hostage and he's making a break for it into the stadium!  McG is the only one to go after him because I guess it's personal?  They get into the stadium and start running toward the field where the aforementioned helicopter is waiting.  There's a shootout of sorts with McGarret using the stadium seats as cover.  He hits the guy in the leg but runs out of bullets, sad face.  The chopper starts to take off...but...

McG jumps onto the struts and pulls himself onto the chopper! He immediately pulls one bad guy off the chopper who falls to his apparent death, and this would be a great time for a Wilhelm scream.  McG and his nemesis fight over the gun until the gun inadvertently goes off and shoots the pilot in the head.  So he is dead.

With the chopper circling he eventually gets the guy to shoot himself int he stomach, fall out of the chopper and onto a car.  So all McG has to do now is land the crashing helicopter, which he does in the parking lot after a lot of strained facial expressions.

So they all gather to McG and Catherine says she's going to buy everyone beer so they all walk off happily.

Oh, it turns out Wo Fat is secure.  McG is going to see him.  One of the guards says McG only has five minutes, but McG says he "only needs two".

Wo Fat gives it up pretty quickly that McG's mom came to Wo Fat to apologize for killing his father, which makes no sense.  McG takes a blood sample from Wo Fat so it's a good thing he had that needle.  He leaves and asks Hiro to run Wo Fat's blood...against his own...to see if Wo Fat is his brother!

His brother!

Back at Five O HQ
They run tests on the magic police machine to see what the last transmission was.  Satellite data transmitted to an unknown third party.  Everyone looks concerned at what they transmitted.

J/Ch-in calls Kono to say the NLM sold Kono and her boyfriend's location to the Yakuza.  They plan to bug out, but there's a guy with a machine gun creeping outside their door.

The End

Der Erlkonig - BE

Boardwalk Empire episode 4-05 "Erlkonig"

Written by Howard Korber, executive producer and often writer on Boardwalk

Directed by Tim Van Patten who directed this past episode

• The previouslies mostly only include scenes from the last two episodes
• "Apaches."  Way to go Eddie
• Looks like threatening deportation to turn informant is an old time device used by g-men.  At least in the fictional worlds we watch on television
• Anytime a baby actually delivers a line they should get an Emmy. 
• So that baby is like 89 or 90 years old today
• The Western Electric plant's whistle is borrowing from The Flintstones
• The last few weeks have really shown Al as a blunt instrument rather than criminal mastermind, with Frank as the real gangster
• When the union guys yell at Al "Who are YOU?" Al gets into his inferiority complex, brought up earlier this season when his name was misprinted
• Though it's all probably part of building Al's character into the kingpin he becomes, with Frank's death being a catalyst
• Just like Dana and Carrie are both going crazy on Homeland, Eddie and Lil Thompson are both being held by police for most of the episode
• Gillian is falling apart faster than Erika Christensen in Traffic
• Fortunately she grew up to be the responsible, ambitious one
• Body count - 2 (15 for the season)
• Eddie :-( By Eddie on the pavement with the plunge
• Frank Capone :-( By the Chicago Police (acting as deputy sheriffs in Cicero) outside Western Electric with the sidearms
• Has anyone described the German language as "beautiful" before?
• The Elf King/Der Erlkonig sounds more like a bedtime story from Dwight Schrute

"Take care, and God bless!"

Uh...Oh...Ah... - HL

Homeland episode 3-02 "Uh...Oh...Ah"

Written by Alex Gansa (executive producer) and Howard Gordon (other executive producer, also of 24)

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter

• I noticed James Yoshimura is a producer on the show, writer and producer on Treme and before that, Homicide: Life on the Street, so...I guess he's buds with David Simon.  Credited in one way or another on a lot of the most memorable Homicide episodes
• Peter Quinn is feeling the effects of shooting a kid
• I wonder if Saul sees a bit of his wife when Ubara (?) walks in
• He really goes off the deep end about her head scarf.  It seems un-Saul
• Or maybe it's a bit of a motivator for her.  I don't understand why she was apparently holding back because she immediately gives more information and I don't understand the reason for the delay
• It does give Saul a chance to later explain it all to us using the Board of Exposition
• Is the guy at the top of the Board of Exposition the new Big Bad.  If he doesn't appear, is he just a Macguffin? Or some combination of the two? (MacBad? Biguffin?)
• Saul's a lot like Leo in the "Issac and Ishmael" episode, also known as the 9/11 episode of West Wing.  It all seems very out of character to be weird and mean about ethnicity
• Speaking of Saul's weird reaction, they are really playing up big meanies having distaste for this women.  "...In this country...." as though whatever she asked or however she asked it would make a difference.  It's like the Tea Party pretending that if only the president would finally be reasonable, they could end this shutdown  
• Not to mention the eyeballing the guards give her until she shows her ID
• I am finding the Opium Wars reading fascinating
• The sign on the reporter's desk says "Too much of a good thing is wonderful"
• Which is often attributed to Liberace but appears to be from Mae West originally
• Imagine hearing this from Carrie.  Some bug eyed woman comes into your office spouting off about how the CIA is out to get her
• I thought for sure it was going to turn out Carrie's father was committing her, which would make Carrie's whole CIA thing out to get her seem even more crazy
• Nope, not her father.  Just her father figure.
• Nothing like sitting around a sterilized room in a hospital gown or hanging around other crazies in their pajamas to make you feel less crazy
• Hurley agrees
• Chicks be crazy man...Dana's going through her own thing, which is driving her mom nuts. 
• When Mrs. Brody says she replaced the tile because the blood wouldn't come out there's a tinge of mom-guilt in there about how Dana ruined the nice tile
• Dana finds a photo from back when her mom was a companion aboard the Firefly class ship Serenity

More and more it seems like Saul is stepping into Estes shoes. Though a bit more conflicted about it, he's doing what he needs to cover the agency and move forward.  Saul committing Carrie can be compared to Estes employing Quinn to take out Brody.  The big difference is that while Brody's threat was probably benign by that point, Carrie is absolutely out to take the CIA down with her.  

Next week: Brody's adventures abroad!

Tin Man is Down - HL

Homeland episode 3-01 "Tin Man is Down"

Written by Alex Gansa, one of Homeland's executive producers.  Previously of 24
Barbara Hall, who wrote for Newhart in the 1980s

Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter

• Season Two MVP Peter Quinn looks to continue on his previous year's success.  He's has an off season regime of shirtless bomb making to keep himself sharp.
• First game of the year, he makes an error .  They won the game but his fielding percentage is lower.
• The Red Viper is the majority counsel during Carrie's perjury session, so I imagine he figures into the story in a significant way
• A lot of this dialogue feels lifted directly from West Wing's Bartlet for America
• e.g. "Let the record reflect the witness has nodded her head so as to indicate an affirmative"
• F. Murray Abraham, whose overly bizarre appearance on Louie I can't get out of my head, points out that there's no construction to repair CIA headquarters.  They aren't moving on, just like this episode is overly focused on what happened previously rather than how this story is going to move forward
• During Carrie's perjury session where she sounds like a crazy person, per usual, she says Brody was rescued from Afghanistan.  But I thought he served in Iraq?
• I hope I am wrong but Wikipedia says otherwise.  I can abide a lot of Homeland's nonsense but I can't abide bastardizing characters and continuity errors
• Dana's tried to commit suicide off screen
• No real indication this was going to happen
• And we're all already bored by her bf
• Mrs. Brody is going by Mrs. Brody despite her husband being a terrorist suicide bomber traitor in the public's (and her) eyes
• Even Skyler White went by her maiden name despite her complicity in her husband's deeds
• SAUL!
• If this show alienated Saul's character and somehow turned him into a real bastard, that's what would turn me off more than any ridiculous plot
• That said, I love that Saul, even in his new acting director role, continues to wear his beard and rumpled shirt with the sleeves rolled up and no tie.  Even though this is completely implausible for a head of an agency or even acting head as in this case, I absolutely love it.  Saul's a worker and not a politico
• So much of this episode is for the viewer's benefit.  Heaping spoonfuls of exposition, even for a season premiere
• Usually the parent or parent figure who is skeptical of an adult child's health or mental health or behavior is a device who is completely wrong about what is actually happening with the character.  But Carrie's dad is 100 percent on target about her crazy
• I've watched it a few times and I always think Dana's brother says "You whore" instead of "You are..."
• Dana's speaking out at Quaker time or whatever it was early in Season Two never came up again
• This show being from and similar to 24...I don't expect much long term planning or plotting like in a show such as Breaking Bad
• There has to be a folder in every casting agency for dick-ish old white men to play politicians
• I love how so many shows declare party neutrality or that the characters have no party when clearly the dicks on the show are Republicans
• That comment isn't actually related to Homeland.  Just television in general.  Because here anyone who gives Carrie a hard time is correct due to her crazy
• Peter Quinn
• M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!
• Quinn's code name is Red-5 which is Luke's call sign in Star Wars: A New Hope
• Quinn kills about a thousand people including the dude hiding in the desk who he doesn't even see
• SUCKA!
• Unfortunately no Congressional GOP members will believe Quinn killed this guy until they have a copy of this picture which they will claim was doctored
• Oh man Mrs. Brody's mom seems like the real supportive kind
• Supportive as in cook dinner and then throw that in your face when she criticizes every choice you make
• Carrie's dad calls her with the newspaper headline.  Get a Google Alert, Carrie
• Carrie feels betrayed by the guy who she just ran after and called out in public, for stating the truth under penalty of perjury
• I wish the show would treat Carrie like the rogue crazy person she is rather than a sympathetic protagonist

All In - BE

Boardwalk Empire - Episode 4-04 - "All in"

Written by David Matthews, writer and story editor on Law & Order: SVU

Directed by Ed Bianchi, who directed a lot of great episodes of Deadwood

• Open with one of Capone's guys making collections, plodding up the stairs, and you can't help but think about Clemenza going up the steps, stopping to wipe his brow at the end of One.
• Not the first time this show made you think of The Godfather, as it did at the end of Season Two
• Agent Knox calls Hoover "Edgar" which seems more familiar than one would expect
• Hoover's also intent on referring to his men as "agents"
• Anyone who's ever been promoted can feel for Eddie, trying to draw clear lines that prevent him from backsliding into his old position
• O'Bannion's man refers to being a veteran of the Philliipine-American War
• Being "summer of '01" would mean he served during the administration of future U.S. president and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Governor-General William H. Taft
• Just one of those many U.S. military conflicts that don't get much attention because why focus on anything but World War II in history class?
• Good to know the "my [insert family member] is sick" excuse was as good back then as it is today to get out of work
• I would not have guess a Herc and Eddie side adventure would take place this season, nor be this entertaining
• The focus on the window (soon to be broken by a flying body) during the Capone Bros. collections just happened in another show, but I can't remember which...
• Sir Not Appearing in this Episode
• Gillian, Lucky, Kelly MacDonald
• Body Count - 1 (13 for the season)
• Aforementioned Phillipine War Vet - Alphonse, outside the bread truck, with the Tommy Gun

The expectation of AR playing cards with Nucky, who clearly didn't want to gamble, is that AR would win and decline Nucky's deal.  Instead, Nucky emphasizes that his best bet is to only play the winnable hands, or to not play often.  He explained just that to his hillbilly friend last week when initially declining the Florida deal, the risk was too high and he didn't have to take it.  

Nucky plays cautiously even with his flush.  AR buys back in for $200k and loses it immediately.  Nucky rightly gets up from the table at that point.  AR said earlier that he learns a lot playing cards with someone.  Some people get very upset when they lose at cards.  Both Silvio and AR are incredibly calm, even, calculated individuals.  But when they're losing money, they lose their minds as well.  Instead of AR learning about Nucky, Nucky learns about AR and pulls the deal.  Not only that but Nucky now feels comfortable enough with Meyer to make a deal behind AR's back.  While Meyer says AR isn't his boss and he doesn't need to clear it with him, we all know it's not going to be good when AR finds out and no one is going out of their way to tell him what's up. 

Between the Nucky-Meyer Alliance and the death of the Temple student via Nucky's booze (additives or no additives), we have some major threads that will likely carry the rest of the season.

"Take care, and God bless!"

Raw Data: Felina - Part 3

The most recent television event comparable to Breaking Bad was the Lost finale, which had about 13.5 million viewers.  Breaking Bad garnered 10.3 million, which is incredible considering it airs on a cable network not found on every provider.  Not only that but Breaking Bad airs at a time when more viewers (particularly of cable dramas...like Breaking Bad...) watch television via other platforms like dvds, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon and AppleTV, network websites, and iTunes.  The finale was probably the first time a lot of these viewers watched Breaking Bad at its appointed night and time.

Another aspect reminded me of Lost, compared to Jack sacrificing himself to save the island and his friends, Walt goes into Uncle Jack's lair planning to blow them all away, while being perfectly fine with himself going out as well.

And both shows end  with the main character expiring.

Raw Data: Felina - Part 2

Continued from part one

Thoughts and observations from the show not previously discussed

Previously on Breaking Bad.....

• Bye Felica, er, Felina.
• Walt appeals to a higher power saying a prayer.  With that, the cops magically pass and the keys magically appear.  It's the first time in the series anyone has done so.  
• We simply assume he's going to hotwire it with science, but again, even with small details, the show manages to subvert expectations.
• Walt may be mad enough to telepathically murder Gretchen and Elliot, but he doesn't so much as threaten them until the very end when he ensures his wishes be carried out
• Do all tv rich people put on the classical music when they get home, playing it through some central system throughout their house?
• Badger! (or Beaver?) is back along with Skinny Pete.  Skinny Pete could play piano for the (Zooms) Schwartzes (Figlianos) at their next benefit and be like "We've met, sort of."
• Given the bluffing nature of this visit, ZSF fits. 
• Walt's specter is so huge he has everyone running all over ABQ looking for him
• This show takes place over two years.  Imagine you did a 27 month stint with Peace Corps during this time in East Bumblefuck, Africa.  Maybe you even got recommendation to the program from a former high school chem teacher, and came back to ABQ to hear about this for the first time
• Jesse daydreams about his shop class and his potential as a woodworker
• He told a story about how he slapped together a box trying to get a D to pass and then would move on. But the teacher motivated him by simply asking "Is that the best you can do?"  Jesse looked at it like "Is that all you got?" and tried again and again through a couple different iterations of the box.  
•  Jesse had to kill Todd.  Todd had to go and it had to be by Jesse.  You spend a year making thi sguy into a complete psycho who's coming into direct conflict with the most consistently beloved character on the show, he had to go and he had to go in a dirty, visceral, Luca Brasi-type way.
• Walt trades on the Heisenberg name throughout the episode.  Jack's name apparently means somethign to him too, as he won't execute Walt until he shows him Jesse's not his partner
• Murderer, drug lord, thief, white supremecist....but don't call Jack a liar
•