Yacht Rock Dockumentary Trailer

The new trailer for HBO's upcoming "dockumentary" about Yacht Rock. It premieres November 29.

Conan O'Brien Must Go Trailer

 

A sneak peak at Conan's new show set to air on HBO Max. The series is set to run for a full four episodes. Wow.

Is the title "Conan O'Brien Must Go" a play on the documentary "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop?" Who cares!

Conan's Talk Show is Ending

 Variety is reporting that "Conan" will end in June of 2021. He will also start a weekly "variety series" on HBO Max.

It's such a gradual decline that it's hard to react too strongly at any stage. I thought the "Tonight Show" era was good but not quite as good as "Late Night". I thought the "Conan" show was not quite as good as the "Tonight Show". Then the "Conan" show became a short show with a podcast and I stopped really paying attention. 

Now he'll be on a premium service which I'm not willing to pay for, especially given the lack of detail about what kind of show it will be.

Well, I wish him good luck.

Revisiting John Adams

I recently decided to re-watch the HBO series "John Adams" and read the book on which the series is based ("John Adams" by David McCullough). I don't remember which I decided first and which second. But having done so, there is a slight re-evaluation in my esteem of the series.

"John Adams" is one of the finest books I've ever read. A large part of what makes it so enthralling is the persons of John and Abigail Adams. They are Salt of the Earth people, superior in intellect, superior in morals, yet friendly and down to earth folk with great senses of humor.

For Episodes 1, 2, 3 and 7 of the series, they effectively communicate some sense of this. But 4-6 take a strange turn. There is no doubt that John Adams was an emotional man, prone to outbursts and negative thoughts but, perhaps for dramatic effect, these qualities are exaggerated (to mind) to an unacceptable degree to the point that he's made out to be an ass. In particular Episode 5, there are Dutch angles and arguments with everyone as he rants and/or raves that it becomes a cartoon. I watch Episode 5 and I don't know why we care about this man or what happens to him. I suggest a Christmas Special of the series where he could be telling people "bah humbug" and slamming the door on charities.

The book notes that Adams was vain, too emotional, too spontaneous, too unthinking. No one told the series that these criticisms come from John Adams himself, not the people around him. Are they not aware that a person can be their own worst critic, and often are? In fact, I'd say the more self-critical a person is of their own flaws, the less likely those flaws are to be seen by others.

If the first great advantage of the series is to give historical figures three-dimensional weight and character, the second is to imbue the history books with the emotion and intensity of current events. This is another thing that the series does well but takes too far. There is a scene in Episode 1 where Samuel Adams takes John to see an American protest where a man is stripped naked and tarred. Samuel Adams looks at it with the relish of a vampire while John Adams is justifiably appalled. This scene never happened. It is put in to communicate their differing views on peaceful protest vs lawlessness - yes, Samuel Adams was much more enthusiastic about protests and Adams much more worried about law and order - but Samuel Adams was not a sadistic sociopath hungry for violence, as far as history records.

Again Episode 5 is the worst in this too. Adams lived in difficult and stressful times, his presidency was hard, it was turbulent. But, I venture it wasn't a descent into Hell, as that episode portrays. The goal is to take the events from the philosophical heavens and plant them solidly in the soil, but they've skipped that sphere and gone below the earth, creating events as though they took place where the fire is not quenched and their worm never dies.

There is a scene in Episode 7 that is so ironic I have to believe it is intentional. John Adams (aged 90) is brought in to review a new painting of the signing of the Declaration. It's the painting used for the back of the $2 Bill. Adams, reviewing the painting, completely eviscerates and berates the painter to the point of inhumanity. Again, this is not what actually happened. The series is portraying Adams as a jerk, for reasons only they know.

But here's the thing... In this scene the fictional Adams's criticism is that "it is very bad" history. The painting arranges all the signers together and in a semi-circle so that all their faces are recognizable. All the signers were never all together in the same room to sign. The painter essentially argues that even if the piece is not factually accurate, artistic license is necessary to nonetheless capture the greater truth. Adams responds, "Do not let our posterity be deluded with fictions under the guise of poetical or graphical licenses... I consider the true history of the American Revolution as lost forever."

Just as the painter needed to take license in order to neatly portray the entire truth, the series "John Adams" takes huge leaps of artistic license in order to shape a 650 page book into a compelling 7 episodes. Conversations that actually took place in letters are, in the series, face-to-face; secret differences of opinion are stated openly; different times and events are combined into one. All of these shortcuts are, to me, completely acceptable. But the people who made the series decided to portray Adams as decrying artistic licenses - and therefore their own series - as bad history and worthless. As I say, I have to assume this much is intentionally tongue in cheek. But the double irony is that the very speech in which he does it is not just artistic license but made up whole cloth. The series wants to declare itself not just worthless in its finest moments, but also less than worthless in its nadirs? I can't fathom what they intend.

All of this is not to say that "John Adams" is a bad series. I still consider it one of the greats. Episode 2 is one of the greatest pieces of television ever made. Episode 1 is fierce and most excellent. Episode 7 is a sublime meditation on the nature of existence. The rest of the series is still very compelling. No, my re-evaluation serves merely to take it from "Perfect" to "Imperfect" but not much further.

Deadwood: The Movie: The Trailer

New trailer for the Deadwood movie.


The movie premieres on HBO on May 31.

If you'd like to read an overlong, possibly embarrassing description of Deadwood, read on.

John Adams

Coming across this video on youtube, I was reminded how great the "John Adams" series was. I really should re-watch it from the beginning.

In this scene, the Revolutionary War is over and John Adams is sent to King George III basically as an ambassador. Great television. Make sure you turn off annotations.

[Youtube Video Deleted]

Ricky Gervais Show Season 2 Premieres; Is Free; Is On My Blog

The second season of the Ricky Gervais show premiered today. And not only that, it's viewable from hbo.com. And not only that, it's free.

Ricky Gervais Show 2-01:

Ep. 14: Clive Warren - Full Episode

And not only that, it's the show where Karl pitches his idea for a new movie starring Clive Warren and Rebecca De Mornay. It's one of the maddest ideas for a movie ever but I kind of get the suspicion that it'll be made some day. After all, Karl pitched the idea that humans should age backwards and they made "Benjamin Button".

I'm not sure of the business model - no commercials, available for free - but I'll take it. Perhaps this is only for the season premiere.

WEETABIX!

Deadwood

"If I'm to go, I'd as soon get started before the darkness."

"Goin' means the darkness is upon us."

Having just watched all 36 episodes of "Deadwood", I venture it to be one of the best dramas ever made. It's one of my favorite shows of all time, I reckon.

A period western made by HBO from 2004 - 2006, the show tells the story of the goings-on of Deadwood (now of South Dakota) from 1876-1877. As Season 1 begins, Deadwood, as a town, doesn't belong to any U.S. territory and is therefore outside the jurisdiction of ANY government. The only law is that there is no law. And being "in the state of nature" (in Lockean terms) every man is his own police officer, judge, jury and executioner. Murder, prostitution, gambling, thievery, drug use and profanity abound.

No discussion of "Deadwood" would be worth its salt if it didn't mention the profanity. This is the most filthy language you'll probably ever see on any television show... ever. It's estimated that the word "fuck" alone is said 1.53 times for every minute of runtime. The characters generally make Jeff Lebowski look like a school teacher. This is one area where the creators of the show chose to not be true to the time period. That is, the swear words used in the show didn't exist in the 1800's. But this is understandable as any characters going around saying "goldarned", etc. are likely to be laughed at - which would have detracted from the reality of the situation. Not just the type of profanity but the amount of it was an artistic choice. If the characters live in a world without rules - the thinking goes - then their speech should reflect that. The "shock value" of the language serves to draw the viewer into the reality of a lawless world.

But the delightful contradiction of the language of "Deadwood" is that it's simultaneously profane and beautiful. All the while that the characters' language is injected with effin' and jeffin' the writing is almost Shakespearean. Soliloquies, literary references, visual imagery, wit, word play, the "western" use of metaphor and the vocabulary of period language all combine to create dialog that's almost poetic. As in Shakespeare, people today don't sound like the characters in "Deadwood" but you'll wish that they did. It's lyrical to the ear whether the content of the meaning is clever, funny or brutal.

"Deadwood" contains all the usual "western" elements (prostitution, drugs, gun slinging, revenge), but  the show is really primarily about characters. The first few episodes set up 12+ fully-formed three-dimensional characters, each with their own logic, motivations, past history, loves and loyalties. Then it places them in the same town at the same time and then it seemingly "let's them go". Like molecules in a vacuum, they bounce off each and react in every possible way, forming alliances, forming grudges, falling in love, fighting, and so on. The show is a complicated and constantly evolving web of loyalty and conflict. The expected western "good guys and bad guys" routine is partially adopted, at first, but (as previously noted) all of the characters are multi-dimensional. As the show progresses, the "good guys" will do bad things and the "bad guys" will do good things. Well into the series, the lines will  disappear and the viewer will be left with characters without convenient labels.

The writing, acting and characters are so superb and the plot so addictive, it came as a slight shock to me that "Deadwood" is based on actual history. Deadwood, South Dakota is a real town. Former lawman Seth Bullock, "Wild Bill" Hickok and "Calamity" Jane were real people and really did arrive and live in Deadwood in 1876 (Season 1). Saloon owner Al Swearengen, Charlie Utter, Sol Star, George Hearst, again, are all characters and all real people. Some days after arriving, Bill Hickok was assassinated by "the cowardly" Jack McCall just as depicted in the show. In mid-1877 (Season 3) former lawmen Wyatt Earp and his brother arrived in Deadwood - again, actually history. And each episode of the show roughly translates to one historical day. But, it should be noted that the show is not a documentary and it is not meant to be. Historically accurate accounts of the "wild west" are impossible as the history is inextricably entangled in myth and legend. The point is that any level of historicity adds that much more richness to an already-amazing show.

For all its splendor, there is one notable weakness to the series. The show was cancelled abruptly and without warning by HBO after just its third season. This means that although there is some closure in the sense that the season ends, there is no real closure to the series. The plot builds to an unbelievable tension but is left somewhat unresolved as the creators fully expected to make another season. It's a huge disappointment that such a great show was cancelled and that we'll only ever have 3 seasons. Perhaps I don't have a right to be angry. Afterall, I've only started watching the show 6 years after it went off the air - I can only assume few people were watching when it was new. Even now, I don't think it's really caught on with people - certainly not the general public. Even so, HBO, usually so good at recognizing quality, definitely blew it when they cancelled this show. It's an example of dramatic writing and acting at their best. It's a brilliant gold nugget in the increasingly played out mine known as television.