Revolution number nein.

I watch Revolution. I don’t think it’s particularly good and it is one of the most frustrating shows I have ever encountered but I watch it regularly. The plot is mediocre. There’s an established world where electricity has been rendered void, though people’s nervous systems are fine, so don’t think about it. The technology that explains how this happened is laughable and, were it real, turning off power would be the absolute least it could do. Seriously, it’s akin to traveling back in time and wowing Victorian folk with your flameless light which is actually a smartphone with the screen turned white. It can do more! Oh, and every character is completely interchangeable with someone else of a similar goal. There are no personalities, only a temperament and a physical goal.

So why do I keep coming back each week to watch? Because of everything happening in the background. I’ve said that Revolution is essentially the “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” of a show that never existed. The story mainly focuses on a handful of men with family issues who try to be better to their families while killing the other guys. That’s nearly everything going on. But in the background? Atlanta is waging a war against Philadelphia, one of the side effects of the blackout is that cancer and other diseases are cured, and people are re-purposing ships to work without electricity and struggling to reopen international trade routes with only manual guidance across the seas. But we get a show about three families in a pissing contest.

So if none of those ideas are featured prominently in the show how are they presented? By our characters passing through scenes and tossing out world-building teasers like a dealer’s first baggie. This one is free, but keep coming back. And, like a hit, the promise of the high is always a cut above the actual trip. The trade routes are mentioned to give an idea of how wealthy a new city they’re passing through must be. A character shows up for a single episode to add emotional weight that maybe this blackout isn’t all bad and hey, no one has cancer anymore. One of our leads proves himself to be a great tactician and gains the trust of Atlanta, is granted control of their army and uses it just to get close to his rivals and get into a fist fight. It’s really that bad.

And that’s what this show is. The same sharks circling each other week after week while just above the surface is the Orca, manned by Quint and Brody and Hooper, with a shipment full of apricot brandy. We get a fish screensaver and miss Jaws playing out mere feet away on the other side of the firmament.

I’ve been enduring this all season but it really struck home how formulaic they use the interesting parts of the world they’ve made as teasers when this season ended. One man loses his army and the other two gain control of armies and the episode comes to a close with a fist fight. Then, in order to clear the karma of the man that caused the blackout, his wife and daughter manage to restore power by shutting down the Macguffin from a high security bunker. Big actions from small emotional stakes. But suddenly…

It’s revealed that a character who’s been doofing around for half a season is actually a patriotic secret agent. He launches (now powered) nukes at both Philadelphia and Atlanta. And he’s done this under the orders of the American President in exile, who’s holed up in the new American colony. It’s located in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and it’s protected by a fleet of pirate ships. Yes, we’ve been watching people hike across the south to get to a computer to turn on more computers when this entire time there’s been GWB commanding a pirate fleet from a conquered Cuba. Why am I not allowed to watch that show? I want that show! Everyone wants that show!

I’m sure the season premier will somehow negate the nuclear missiles already in flight in order to focus more time on Mustache Dad from the Twilight movies waving his sword around like a feather duster. Why am I sure? Because this show is constantly lowering the stakes. In writing one is supposed to push the importance and intensity as high as possible without crossing into (too much) melodrama. Revolution is a rare bird in that it will establish incredibly high stakes and then show you how uninvolved our cast is with said stakes. It’s almost postmodern in its irony.

I know it’s weird to be so invested in something I care so little for. I’m just really interested in the secret Hamlet, the “man behind the curtain”, the show that could have been “George W. Bush: Pirate King of Guantanamo Bay!” But I promise you this; my next post will be about fueled by love.

Adam Reviews: Man of Steel (2013)

This is probably the most frustrating superhero movie I have seen since Batman Forever. But where Batman Forever had no idea what it wanted to be with both production and story,Man of Steel has its production down to a fine polish. It looks grey and gritty and full of falling buildings, like a desaturated Transformers finale. But its joyless bastardization of the character and inconsistent story are all over the place when it comes to content.

The movie’s most consistent feature is the direction by Zack Snyder. It’s by no means good but it holds solid through the whole movie. The color tones are brown on Krypton and grey on Earth. While it was probably intended to reflect the worlds’ two suns (red and yellow respectively), they not only don’t match but don’t serve the planets well, either. Krypton simply looks like a future extrapolation of 300 and Earth has a clinical sterility and lack of life, even in landscape shots. There’s very little tonal shift between an arctic expedition and New York City. That, combined with Snyder’s obvious comfort in cutting things like music videos, leads to a plodding feel. The overly long and ineffectual punch-fest of a finale does nothing to lift this tone.

In fact, it’s so joyless that I don’t even get the sense that Snyder is excited about the paycheck, let alone actually making this movie. There’s no banter or conversation between characters. The one “joke” I can recall comes at the end and is possibly a bit sexist. The whole time we’re told that Clark/Kal/Superman loves his adoptive planet and that’s what drives him to do good. His flashbacks are a bit sepia-toned and always about him being comforted by his parents for being teased or a “tough, teachable moment”. Sure, these are parts of a childhood, but at no point does Clark ever have a moment of fun. He never enjoys life here. He simply survives from one moment to the next and periodically assists others in surviving. Even in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, we have casual banter between Alfred and Bruce, in fact creating some of the only moments in the later films when the character allows himself to transition from his alter ego back into his civilian state of mind.

In Man of Steel, we don’t even get to see if Henry Cavill is a good actor. He can hit the somber tone of this movie, but he’s akin to a singer holding a single note. Is there range? We’ll never know from this. Michael Shannon does have emotional range in this movie. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a good dialect coach. Watching his scenes on mute would do him better service since his slightly nasal Eastern seaboard tone undermines his presence constantly. This is strange because I looked it up and he seems to be from Kentucky, but perhaps this is a manner of speech he picked up for Boardwalk Empire and has not let go of. So instead of commanding orders, he sort of sneers and meows them out.

While it may sound like nitpicking, the internal rules of this world are completely inconsistent. Supposedly, Kryptonians get their powers on Earth from the yellow sun’s radiation, but it’s a major plot point that it’s actually from our atmosphere. This switches back and forth a few times. Likewise, we are told and shown that when not on Earth, Kryptonians are similar in abilities to humans, yet we see some arriving and are immediately jumping through buildings and tearing apart “indestructible” metal that originated on Krypton. Their technology also sometimes requires shade from our sun to work but mostly is just fine in direct light. As for the Phantom Zone, the parallel dimension that Krypton uses as a prison? It’s apparently in constant direct contact with this dimension so I’m not sure how far away and secluded it is supposed to be.

And then there’s the character of Superman. Superman is (supposed to be) a metaphorical story of an immigrant Jew. Escaping a war torn and desolated world of no hope (Nazi Germany), parents sacrifice everything they have for their child to leave and have a better life. Once in this new land of America he keeps his heritage a secret, practicing what he knows of his past and trying to balance assimilation and keeping true to himself. He comes from a culture that prizes knowledge of the sciences and goes into a career dealing with education, knowledge and words. He hopes for a day when he can come out and reveal his cultural past but in the meantime toils away to prove himself to his new adoptive homeland. He belongs to a minority that is escaping persecution and is visually indistinguishable from the majority. He is separate by choice and seeking a balance of identity and unity.

In Man of Steel, he’s Jesus. That’s it. He’s Jesus Christ, martyr and savior. That’s about as much of a bastardization as one can come up with. There are already articles circulating about this but I’ve avoided them all. I’m sure, not being Christian, that I’ve missed a number of reference points but I noticed enough. He’s explicitly 33, and has been on Earth for 33 years. He strikes the “sexy crucified” poses. A lot. He’s a miracle birth by his home world’s standards, being their first biological birth in centuries. And then there’s a painfully obvious scene that takes place between Clark Kent and a priest in a church. The shot/reverse shot framing is so that the priest has a cross over his shoulder and Clark has a stained glass image of Jesus on his for every single shot. He talks about how his father has given him to this planet and he’s here to help humanity. He knows that he must give himself up to Zod in order to save humans but isn’t sure that humans are able to be redeemed. I was groaning in the theater but afterward was told this is essentially the story of Jesus in Gethsemane, especially since the people he turns himself in to and trusts then hand him over to General Zod. Don’t worry, he forgives those people before he’s taken away. Just in case this wasn’t enough religion (and the wrong religion for the character at that) one of Zod’s minions is fighting Superman and gives a tiny monologue about how he was born without purpose but, since Kryptonians are bred and grown with a purpose to fill in society, she’s the result of evolution and evolution will always win. She’s then beaten unconscious by the personification of creationism. Subtle, Snyder. Very subtle.

With all of that out of the way, I didn’t leave the theater in a rage. Sure, I lost respect for Nolan since he gave this the green light, but I never expected much from Snyder and was thus only slightly surprised at the depths of the low points in this film. I did manage to pick out a few pleasing bits amidst the wreckage. I think that the darker but absolutely sincere Jon Kent was new and very well done. At one point, Clark saves a busload of children from drowning and Pa Kent says that he needs to remain in hiding, possibly even to the extent of letting those classmates die just to protect the person that Clark will one day become as long as he remains free and secret. While this seems incredibly harsh, his motives are shown to be noble when he makes Clark stay away as he sacrifices himself for Clark’s secret. Keeping his adopted son well and safe from captivity isn’t just his priority, it’s his life’s mission. In this case, Clark is not a foil to Zod’s single-minded devotion to his cause; Jon Kent is. The other thing I enjoyed was how they didn’t make Lois Lane an oblivious idiot when Clark comes to work for the Daily Planet and not recognize him. Those two points were refreshing and handled very well.

So what do I take away from this movie? That Zack Snyder doesn’t understand Superman or movie construction. The only other possibility is that this darker, grittier Superman isn’t supposed to embody “truth, justice, and the American way” but a new set of American ideals. That of “sponsored consumerism, bible-thumping morality, and rampant xenophobia”. Which, actually, might be the case. I just read that Man of Steel has broken the record for number of consumer product sponsorships, with over 100 corporate contracts. Now that Superman is shilling for the National Guard, Hershey’s, Carls’ Jr., Warby Parker, Gillette, Walmart, Sears, 7 11, Kellogg, Nokia, Hardee’s, and Chrysler,  maybe he’s no longer a symbol for America, but a logo.

Rating: -3.5 on a scale of -5 to +5
Post Script: the film would have garnered a -1.5 but the offensive religious points separately earn a -5 so I averaged it out to about a -3.5

Distinctly British

I was really geared up to write another critical piece on a show that’s been driving me crazy this past season but when I mention the idea the first response has always been “Are you going to write about things you like?” I do not want to give the impression that I hate everything. I’m not curmudgeonly. What I am is critical and I don’t find that problematic. I accept that most media I take in won’t be great so I keep my standards high and am incredibly pleased when something really works for me.

I’ve been finding that British shows have a style of production about them that works for me. That’s not a snooty “BBC is better than American networks.” It’s a time-tested pattern that I’ve found emerges. Where US TV tends to focus heavily on a producer who can bring about franchises (J.J. Abrams) British TV tends to follow around writers. That means when a creator works you can follow around projects with a more regular results in varying genres. Example? Steven Moffat. Coupling was a great show for the first three seasons and a good one for it’s final fourth. While my previous post explains why I think he has failed Doctor Who, a lot of what doesn’t work on Doctor Who is exactly what does work on his Sherlock. And while he doesn’t write every episode, Moffat returns to the inkwell often enough onSherlock to keep his involvement a valid point.

Another thing is that shows across the pond run shorter and I believe that gives producers a bit more leeway with risks. A new show doesn’t work out? A whole season down the ratings drain is just six episodes, so carry on and try again. Programs also tend to have shorter lifespans as well. Greats shows can run four seasons and that’s not unusual. Even with longer twelve-episode seasons, that’s still just forty-eight episodes. In America, the bar for higher-priced syndication is 100 episodes, or now 88. I think that illustrates quantity versus quality right there.

Enough of the “why”; how about some “what”? What should you be importing? I’ll keep these current because opening up the past or even borders to the Great White North deserve their own posts.

• SherlockAs I’ve said, the darkness of a man simultaneously striving for post-human efficiency while finding himself in the company of his first true friend is a delight to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch is great and Martin Freeman plays his usual bumbling style with a bit of a sharper edge than usual.
• Orphan Black
  This one is on BBC America so it may not meet your import standards but it’s a fantastic show. Tatiana Maslany (you probably won’t recognize that name) is pretty astounding as all of her clone characters. I was initially turned off as I expected it to be a sci-fi show and, while it technically is, really it’s more of a cloak and dagger mystery. But it’s a great one, filled with crisscrossing allegiances, switched identities and different people fighting for all sorts of family units. Toss in Jordan Gavaris as the main character’s socially dexterous gay foster brother and there’s barely any screen time that is less than enthralling.
• Misfits
  Season 5 is currently filming and the show does get a bit muddled after the third season but it’s still better than almost every season of any American super-powered show. Seasons one and two hold a tight arc and season three holds it’s own with an interesting twist laid on the main group.
• UtopiaI don’t know if you’re ready for this one. The single season that is out is only six episodes long but it will fuck with you. The editing, music, and cinematography are all harsh. The characters are a disparate lot. The conspiracy is both simple and revealed in a labyrinthine manner. And it’s all pretty sick. But it’s about a comic book and the future of the world and if you like it after the first episode you’ll want to finish this in a single sitting. Pace yourself. And despite pretty low ratings another season is on the way, help us all.
• There are also a number of trivia shows that I adore (8 Out of 10 Cats, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI) but I figure that I’d stick to scripted shows for now. But given access, try those out as well.