"Fate's Right Hand" - Justified - 6-01

      Lots of "holler"ing back to the pilot in the sixth season Justified premiere.  Like a good novel, things are coming back together from how they were laid out at the start.  Justified does this better than anyone on a scene, episode, season and series level.  

Dewey pined for simpler times when he and the gang hung out with Boyd in the abandoned church as part of Crowder's commandos, as they did in the pilot.  Then Raylan came to town and since they everything's gone pear shaped.  

Dewey wasn't the only one rehashing the old times.  Boyd executed a suspected rat, as he did on the bridge in the pilot. And Raylan and Eva walked through her shooting Beaumon, which had taken place just prior to Raylan's homecoming in the pilot, and what she did to deceive him in the days leading up to it.  

But perhaps the most important conversation was between Raylan and Art, which only tacitly brought to mind the pilot.  Raylan can easily see a showdown where he shoots Boyd and heads off to Florida to see his baby girl...even if we know he's probably not going to live up to fatherly responsibilities based on the way he dodged any chance to see his daughter last season (and Winona's doctor appointments before that).

Art offered that Boyd could also shoot Raylan, but that doesn't seem likely to the White Hat.  He almost finds it comical that Boyd could draw faster than him.  So our minds automatically go to that other dinner at the Crowder house that ended in a shooting, when Raylan shot Boyd.  

So I supposed we can expect the story to come back around and culminate in one of the standoffs that Justified has been so good at.  

You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive is the refrain that's ended most seasons, and an idea that many of the characters have tried to attain.  Even in "Fate's Right Hand" we see Boyd try to get Eva to pack up and leave if, part left unsaid, he can rob enough banks to set them up for life in Costa Rica.  Each attempt to get out of Harlan has failed because it is some sort of purgatory and they haven't carried out their sentences yet.  The question remains is if Raylan's shooting of Tommy Bucks in the first scene of the first episode, the sin that placed him there, is cardinal or venial.

Look-see

• Garret Dillahunt played two different characters in Deadwood, sharing the show with TO and many other Justified personalities.  His face was oh so punchable.  And kickable.  And pistol whip-able
• Boyd's tattoo is there to remind us he's a bad guy after all
• "Stupid looking" They nailed it
• I don't even know how to type the phonetic versions of Dewey's "negligence" and "maleficence"  
• Boyd mentions that Harlan was a boomtown.  Boomtown was another Graham Yost creation that featured Quarles, from Detroit, and Limehouse, from Noble's Holler
• "What's in the box?!"  Paperwork.  The best season of Justified started with another seemingly innocuous find.  In a wall no less.  Though there were no drawers in that wall.
• Was Raylan saying the Dewey Crowe was a waterskiing Goofy at Disney World?  Orlando makes sense, but the rest?  Just plain hilarious.
• Miller's Creek is between Lexington and Harlan. 

Tonight's drink: Bulleit Bourbon - Lawrenceburg, KY with one giant ice cube

Bests of 2014: Episodes

"The Children"

Game of Thrones

A show whose episodes are more known for being the episode where one particular scene happened than for the episode as a whole.  In the few cases where an episode is known for the episode as a whole, it's a result of most or all of the episode focusing on a single event.  "The Children" is the best example of Game of Thrones so far where an episode has multiple pieces and is greater than the sum of its parts.  It manages to wrap up storylines and lead them into future seasons in Kings Landing, The Wall, beyond the Wall and with Arya...all while melding them with other heretofore minor storylines (Stannis) or seeds planted in the past (Jaquen H'gar's coin).  Much time is dedicated to the far North, but rightly so as it gives time for Snow to process Ygritte's death as well as establish the new sherriff in town.

"The Secret Fate of All Things"

True Detective

While True Detective is most often praised for its six minute one shot sequence in the previous episode, it's when we see the narrative and the flashbacks completely diverge that the show really stakes its claim.  Functionally and structurally, it answers a load of questions while closing off the first act of the show.  Artistically, the acting from the two leads joined with the editing and directing to tell a story in the best possible way.

"Burdian's Ass"

Fargo

Similar to "The Secret Fate of All Things", "Buridan's Ass" closes off a few storylines from the first part of the season and launched into the second.  Somehow, Fargo allows us to feel sympathy for a fake and bake schmuck like Don or shock at Lester's simultaneously masterful and sickening plan when he escapes the hospital.  The premeditation brings him to a level we haven't seen before and well sets up the second half of the season, all while making us wait a week in agony to learn the outcome of the snowstorm.  Worth it for the drums alone.

"End of Watch"

Elementary

An episode that would have been pulled had it been scheduled to air the following week.  Sherlock and Watson investigate a random police shooting, and then a second random police shooting.  The investigation, like most episodes, has more layers than it initially seems but does enough to distract the viewer from finding it predictable.  The other element that elevates the episode is Sherlock's concern of losing anonymity, and more importantly confidence, at NA and the lengths at which he'll go to retain it.  We've seen a few dark moments from Sherlock ("I am not nice"), so we're set up for it.  And seeing him spell out his rationale for his methods comes of as solid characterization.

Honorable Mentions

"Episode Ten"

"Episode One"

The Affair

"Guest"

"Two Boats and a Helicopter"

"The Garveys at Their Best"

The Leftovers

"Waterloo"

"The Monolith"

Mad Men

"Form and Void"

True Detective

"Grimmy - Series Finale"

The Colbert Report

Newsroom - Episodes 3 & 4

Sorkin says he is "pretty certain" his is leaving television after Newsroom ends and I wonder if there's a bit of senioritis.  While he says it's not as a result of the critical reception of Newsroom, one couldn't blame him.  I know I would grow weary under constant accusations of sexism, technophobia and condescension.  Especially when those accusations are based on perceived traits of fictional characters.  It is like calling Thomas Harris a serial killer.

While episode two featured Will recapping what could have been done in a previously, episode four featured Will explaining the court process he was facing, then the episode took us through that same court process.  Unfortunately it removed any suspense, much like how Homeland Season Three removed the suspense by explaining Saul's plan in its entirety, even though keeping the viewer in the dark benefited the first third of the season greatly.  Sorkin is a good enough writer though that we don't come for the plot, but for the dialogue, and it does not disappoint.  And for his sake, it has the benefit of taking up minutes of screentime as we play out the wire of Newsroom.

Funny enough, as big screen actors, writers, directors take their turns at television in order to employ the storytelling benefits the medium has, Sorkin expects to move full time to the movies.  His recent movies, Moneyball, The Social Network, are unqualified successes.  Charlie Wilson was another entertaining movie.  All are adapted screenplays from books.  Sorkin's plots have never been his strongest point, something he readily acknowledges *.  So please, continue to ply this man with decent source material so he can shape it into his own voice.  The movies are the place for that.


* "My parents took me to see plays when I was very little, and very often times to ones that I was too young to understand, like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which I saw when I was 9. But because I couldn't understand the story, what I really focused on was the language. It sounded like music to me, and I wanted to imitate that sound. As a result, I love dialogue, but I'm very weak with story. I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue. But when I'm writing, the way the words sound is as important to me as what they mean."

This season has taken great pains to explore two or more sides of every issue its faced.  Whistleblowers versus security.  Old media versus new media.  Ratings versus reporting.  And the show is not necessarily better or worse for it, it is merely different. 

At the Newseum there is a map which represents each country's World Press Freedom rating.  Many visitors are surprised that the United States is not the top rated country, or even int he top five.  Or ten.  Or twenty five.  It is in a tie with Micronesia and Austria for 30th place.  Part of that is some of the countries ranked higher are so small and/or isolated that they have little press to speak of (and thus little reason for the government to suppress it).  It does not mean the United States received a bad rating (21/100, where top ranked Sweden Norway and Denmark all rated 10).  It merely means there are issues that Freedom House, the independent watchdog organization that compiles the report, takes issue with.  For example:

Press freedom suffered from heightened restrictions on reporters’ access to officials from the Obama administration and to government information, particularly concerning national security; government eavesdropping on journalists and news outlets; and continued efforts to compel journalists to reveal the sources of leaked information.
 [...]
 Some 39 states have shield laws that give journalists either absolute or limited protection from orders to reveal confidential sources or other information gathered in the course of their work. The federal government, however, offers no such protection, and efforts to adopt a federal shield law have stalled due to opposition from the Obama administration and congressional unwillingness to treat the issue as a priority. After the administration was criticized in 2013 for accessing the telephone and e-mail records of journalists, it reversed course and indicated a favorable attitude toward a revised federal shield bill.  

Will
I know Reece stated Will's motivations as trying to attain Mac's approval.  But I think it has more to do with his establishing journalism cred and becoming more in touch with his staff over the course of the series.  We know will was an legal analyst  on television who fell into his anchor job by chance.  So he didn't make his bones via embedded reporting or even J-school.  He makes a lot of money for reading the news and opening his broadcast with a Special Comment-esque soliloquy.  His income, his background, or lack thereof, and his celebrity put him at a distance from the journalists/producers that work in the lowercase-n-no-italics-newsroom.  He counts himself as a journalist though and makes a point to name himself one in the conversation between him, Neal, Rebecca and Mac.

Since the pilot where he was phoning it in and didn't know who was on his staff and colleagues, he's established relationships with Jim, Don, Sloane, that girl he hired, and also marrying the English one.  We've seen the team build not through trustfalls or rope courses but from Will behaving in a manner that creates loyalty (like the Rudy-esque check donations).  He goes into his own pocked because he has faith in Neil's hunch.  And now he puts himself in the line of fire of a DOJ inquiry which will address both his journalistic creds and his dedication to the staff.  He also has (had) a chance to be the face of a story that blows that restores credibility to the network following Genoa, a story he also was the face of.

Post NewsNight with Will Macavoy
Is it too much to hope he follows through on his proposition to Charlie and they go report sports?  Because Parenthood is ending, freeing up Peter Krause.  Josh Charles has left The Good Wife.   A SportsNight movie?

I'm sure there is zero chance of this actually happening.  We have to settle for guest appearances on KO.
 
BULLETIN

• Besides Will's filibustering, the Sloane/Don/HR storyline was confirmed as benign.  Hopefully in the last two episodes the most interesting couple and characters on the show will get something worthwhile to do.
• Anytime there's day of the week card smash cut like that, it makes me think of The Shining
• Here's to small weddings!
• Dev panel, when getting the scripts, must've been disapointed to not have any screentime these last two episodes.  And only two left.
• Thank you, HBO, for airing something on Thanksgiving weekend.  You joined Elementary and Survivor (both on CBS) as the only new programming I watched this week.

Fall 2014 Predictions - updated

We're far enough into the fall season that a lot of the new shows are cancelled already.  The predictions post is updated with the good or bad news.

Black Sails - Hoist the Colours!!

Who doesn’t like pirates?  Until Pirates of the Carribean, there was not much in the way of a seminal pirates movie, and then we got four which grossed eleventy billion dollars.  Contemporary television has made its way through historical and fictional lore seeing what will stick (zombies? Vikings? Westerosi?).  The success of one type of show begets copycats on another network.  There’s a sliding scale of historical dramas which starts with Rome at one end, followed by lesser versions of such as The Tudors, The Borgias, DaVinci’s Demons, Reign, Spartacus and Camelot.  While there’s occasionally good television mixed in, these are mostly the function of a formula combining period drama, violence and nudity and really really ridiculously good looking people.  As the writing or acting quality goes down, expect these other elements to increase. 

In the midst of reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crighton, I decided to give Black Sails a try.  Expecetedly, the elements above are dialed up in the pilot to grab the viewers attention.  Look at any pilot really and see how as a result of the characters not yet being formed and the show trying to make an impression that every aspect of the show is typed in ALL CAPS. 

A show about pirates produced by Michael Bay you say?  And it’s only eight episodes?  Sign me up. 

My dad used to love wrestling.  WWF type wrestling.  And he’s explain why it was more fun to do that than a baseball game sometimes.  You go to a game, you might get a crappy game, you might lose, you might have crappy weather, whatever.  You go to wrestling and you know 100 percent going into it that you’re going to be entertained.  So if I adjust my expectations and don’t expect this show to be The West Wing and instead eat my popcorn and watch Transformers, I know I’m going to be thoroughly entertained.  

The pilot drops us in to mayham on a ship and there’s lots of scary pirates and limbs being chopped off, just as you would expect in a pilot.  Every character is at eleven because all they’ve seen is one script and a few lines within that script that relate to their character.  We’re being introduced to the command structure of the main, pirate vessel (The Walrus), as well as the fence in the Bahamas that centers the pirate commerce, as well as a rival pirate ship’s command, The Ranger.  There are other wild cards, like the prostitute in port or the new defector to the Walrus who, especially in the early episodes, drive the plot with their Ryan O’Reilly type scheming.

We know some of these characters before we meet them, whether it’s from actual history, from fictional works, or from their archetypal make up found in contemporary television.  However, as the series progresses they take the opportunity to develop more and drive the show with their personalities rather than relying on boobs and decapitations to make things interesting.

Captain Flint, the main protagonist, is known to us from Robert Louis Stevenson.  In fact, while I didn’t know this when I started watching, the whole series serves as a prequel to Treasure island, set twenty years beforehand.  It didn’t become evident until Mr. Silver’s name was revealed as John (the aforementioned pirate defector).  While he’s a conflicted, possibly morally compromised white male lead who carries a secret, the character has something that I’ve only seen done successfully on the first season of Homeland.  Like Brody, we are not entirely sure where he truly stands.  We see him in private moments, we see him interacting with different characters telling them different things.  We see him explain away suspicions but we also are privy to other third person accounts that condemn him.  We see him in action, leading men, making wise decisions and scheming crafty plans.  It’s most important for a character to be interesting.  Then we ideally would like to see competency.  He meets both these requirements but still we aren’t sure if we should trust him or root for him, and that’s one of the draws of the show.

Another element relatively unique to the show is how background characters will be brought into the fold over the course of the season as a result of their own development.  A complaint I have with some shows is how new characters are constantly introduced during and between seasons when already they have a stable of good candidates already in the cast to develop.  It sometimes results in an overcrowded cast and too complicated story.  Black Sails works in house to create drama rather than contracting outsiders as a source of conflict.

The show starts strong, begins to establish the characters, then stalls a bit as the crew is in port just a mite too long.  When they sail again, the action picks back up, peaking in episode six, which not coincidentally is the most character driven episode, and coming to a satisfying and intriguing, but not entirely earthshaking, conclusion.  Over eight episodes, it strikes a good balance of Michael Bay pirate fun and interesting characters and storylines.

Cool Pirate Things I Like

• I was a pirate at least once for Halloween.  My brother and I had hats we got at the ride in Disney World.
• In  my dorm room hung a version of Calico Jack’s jolly roger
• There are two great scoreboard sequences at PNC Park for Pittsburgh Pirate games.  One is at the games start when ships sailing opponents colors sail up the Mon, Allegheny and Ohio to attack the stadium, but the Pirates fight back in their own ships, sinking their rivals with cannons.  The other is when the home team needs some runs late in the game and Keira Knightley’s “Hoist the Colors” speech is played.  And it. Is. Awesome.

The Affair - MIdseason

The structure to The Affair is praiseworthy, not because of its novelty, but because the show uses the structure only to enhance the story, rather than allow the structure to dominate at the cost of the story.  We’ve seen flexibility so far in the order of the POVs, showing Alison’s both before and after Noah’s, as well as showing both concurrent and successive events.  The POV still is the dominate trait, but the details around it change to suit the story.

Not only that but in one episode, the POVs told successive stories rather than concurrent ones.  In the scenes that conflict, we are to see not merely that there is a difference but to understand and interpret what those differences mean.  If there’s no purpose to understanding a divergence then the writers use that other half hour to tell the story in another way that benefits the plot.

The issue with the slightly cracked door has been answered and the Lockharts are outed as drug dealers.  Noah’s anger and disappointment no doubt fuel from his bubble being burst about what Allison is.  His disenchantment with her is similar to how he’s rethinking his life with his wife when he has to sit around and eat shit all summer from her parents.

Is it possible that Oscar is the smartest guy in the room?  Being able to suss out Noah and Allison is one thing, but to play the Batman gambit to ultimately get his bowling alley permit and have a blackmail card in his back pocket is impressive.  

With the drugs and the high level of conflict within the Lockhart family, it’s possible that Scotty’s death has absolutely nothing to do with the affair and everything to do with the drug operation going pear shaped. 

The sense of entitlement that pervades the Lockharts is possibly the worst thing about them. 

Mama Lockhart is Lotso.  She pretends to not get in the middle of things, but in fact she is taking a position as a result of not taking a position.

Newsroom - Episodes 1 & 2

Newsroom
Season Three
Episodes 1 & 2

Newsroom returned for its abbreviated final season and Aaron Sorkin’s television swan song.  Not unlike Newsroom’s protagonist frustration reaching a boiling point and seeming ready to call it quits for the news business, Sorkin noted that after this fourth go around on the small screen, it’s time to turn out the lights.  I can’t help but think his frustration with not just the commentary on the show but the tone and myopia that populate that commentary at least partially mirrors Will’s frustration with the lack of ratings generated by the cautious tone ACN takes in wake of the Genoa scandal.

Boardroom

The hostile takeover hit a solid point with the “what can you buy with $3.1 billion that you can’t buy with $2.3 billion” argument.  It is exemplary of an argument that is divided by nothing less than values that define our political beliefs. Being taxed at a low rate isn’t acceptable if you can get an even lower rate.  And a lower one after that, and then find loopholes to artificially lower it even more.  At some point reasonable people realize enough is enough and don’t get particularly upset if some of their money is used for healthcare. 

“We may get into Bitcoin.” – Audible guffaw!

Don and Sloane

Let’s hope two of the most interesting characters’ relationship aren’t reduced to simply talking about their relationship.  That said, Sloane’s Leslie Knope-ish waffle fixation and their chemistry allowed some levity in an otherwise ethical dilemma filled episode.  

Tweet

The tweet about the GOP happened and was dealt with.  Either this was solely to give Jim something to do, or it is going to launch something bigger with Hayley working at a competitor and grinding an ax, as Jim predicted.  Or at least being expected to grind an ax.  It’s the sort of thing that happens to the Juan Williams of the world.

Maggie Being Terrible

Even if this was Didactic Sorkinese, you have to appreciate the arguments, legal, ethical, moral, personal, from both sides of Maggie’s eavesdropping.  The Newseum in Washington, DC has an Ethics Center were you can read about ethical dilemmas reporters have faced, make your own decisions about how to act in said situation, and read poll results from those in journalism about what they would do.  It’s more exciting than you would expect for an exhibit about ethics.

The circumstances here make Maggie into a mere tabloid and gossip shill.  The EPA official, let’s call him Toby Flenderson, isn’t saying anything that’s not obvious.  The difference is he’s giving a name and face to it.  Maggie slinking down in her chair, eavesdropping on another reporter and threatening to publish what she heard (and what she heard is technically half a story) doesn’t serve to do anything except embarrass the speaker and in the long run make Maggie look bad.  If Maggie came into some earth shattering news that actually affected the general welfare, then it may be a different ballgame.  But doing a gotcha for the sake of gossip is completely unacceptable and I can’t imagine Will or Mac would want to dedicate any airtime to it. 

Having the ethics professor conveniently sitting there was a bit much though.  Maybe someone will happen to be walking down the street with $4 billion that Leona can have.  Professor McPoyle may pop up again if he starts seeing Maggie, which means he may stop by the newsroom which means he may mix in on the leak story.  

Leak Story

While we took a bit of time rehashing the events of the previous episode, we did learn about the possible consequences from both Mac’s FBI friend, let’s call her Commander Kate Last Name Unremembered, and ACN’s favorite counsel, Rebecca Halladay.

You can compare this story to Maggie’s terribleness on the train.  On the train, Maggie came by useless information by arguably unethical or immoral, yet legal means.  In the newsroom, Neal came by earth shattering information via illegal means. 

But you have to like Will “getting some skin in the game” while he’s at the end of his rope.

·         Commander Kate classifies whistleblowers as those who decide which laws they’d like to follow. 

·         Equatorial Kundu is the country from West Wing Season Four where a genocide mirroring the Rwandan genocide takes place, leading to a foreign policy shift by President Bartlet

·         Charlie asks if you’ve ever seen a more trustworthy person than him which is exactly why Sam Waterson does financial investment commercials