Chuck: The Nerd Who Came In From The Cold

NBC has been derided for years owing to its consistent fourth-place finishes in the battle of network TV ratings. However, their failure to impress the nation has been a blessing in disguise for certain people, i.e. the fans of shows that would have probably been cancelled after one season (or a few episodes) if they were on a more successful network. Friday Night Lights is the perfect example of a quality piece of programming that  never saw big ratings and was always in danger of cancellation. But since NBC faced a dearth of original programming, they kept FNL on for five glorious seasons, which I can now revel in to my heart's content. Similarly, another show that profited from the network's declining status is the nerdy spy comedy, Chuck.

Chuck premiered during my senior year of college and was a diverting bit of TV programming. My friends and I would gather in the TV room on Mondays (which was a less jam-packed time slot than it is now) and chuckle at the improbable adventures that would take place over that one hour. The show follows Chuck, a man who works at an electronics store called Buy More and is leading a dull life fixing people's computers as a member of the Nerd Herd (their equivalent of the Geek Squad). His old college roommate sends him an unexpected e-mail one day, with an attachment that changes his life. When he opens up the encoded file, top secret CIA information about every topic under the sun is downloaded into his brain via a program known as the Intersect. Chuck now becomes a walking repository of CIA information, capable of "flashing" whenever he sees an evildoer and instantly having their criminal history and known associates at his fingertips. In addition, he now has a variety of skills at his disposal - he can engage in hand-to-hand combat, speak fluent Russian, or tango seductively as the situation demands.

Yes it's a crazy premise, but it makes for entertaining television. Zachary Levi, the actor who plays Chuck, does so with such nerdy charm that you will root for him no matter what. Throw in his newly acquired CIA handlers who are sent to wrangle this new asset into shape and keep him from getting into the wrong hands, and his clueless best friend, sister, and sister's boyfriend, all of whom can't find out about his secret. The supporting cast is hilarious, all memorable characters in their own right, and as the show progresses, every single one of them begin to feel like family.

Chuck was constantly on the brink of cancellation, but it had an enormously devoted fan base. These fans were so devoted that they managed to convince Subway to stick around as a sponsor of the show, a move which then led to a lot of tongue-in-cheek product placement for the rest of the series. NBC figured they had to court whatever goodwill they had left and since Chuck had this highly vocal fan base, the show kept going. Thus, against all odds, Chuck returned this year for a special fifth season of thirteen episodes, designed to end the show on the creators' terms and give the fans a well-deserved resolution to a series that they had all grown to love.

I have never been a die-hard Chuck fan. The show was amusing, had some delightful references to delight any nerd (Adam Baldwin from Firefly plays one of Chuck's handlers after all), but could be wildly uneven from episode to episode. Therefore, I was surprised when I watched the finale on Friday and found it rather moving and emotional. If it managed to affect me in that way, I can't imagine how the true-blue Chuck fans felt. Every single character we had come to know over the past five seasons had a chance to come out and strut their stuff and it was nostalgic and wonderful. The story itself was extremely bittersweet, with an ending that was happy but not schmaltzy like most series finales. The love story between Chuck and Sarah, which has always been at the heart of the show, was really put through its paces in the finale, and the way they got through all the challenges served as a metaphor for the show itself.

Chuck was always the plucky underdog, and as you got to know him, you fell in love with his warmth, intelligence, and generosity. Fans of this show were drawn to the characters and the relationships that kept them all together. The stories were sometimes great, sometimes awful, but you tuned in every week to see if Chuck and Sarah would get together, if Morgan and Casey could get along, if Jeffster would sing another power ballad. In the end, the series finale was a worthy tribute to the show and gave these beloved characters all the hope and happiness that they deserved. So if you've never seen Chuck, grab the DVDs of Season 1 and start watching. You have a lot of CIA-Nerd Herd action to catch up on.

The Alchemist: A Shepherd's Guide to Living Well

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of those books I've heard about and seen on many lists of 100 Books You Must Read. I put off reading it since I was under the impression that it would be impossibly long-winded and dull, like lots of "must-read" books tend to be. But when I found a copy at the library that looked disarmingly slim and legible, I figured it was time to give it a shot.

The book is an allegorical fable. If that already makes you roll your eyes, please bear with me. In the daunting realms of allegorical fiction, this novel is actually rather beautiful, and also, a very quick read. It took me less than 2 hours to finish, so if nothing else, you can read this book rapidly and cross it off your must-read list. But I hope you will try to savor it because it did succeed in winning me over with its simplicity and charm. It tells the tale of an Andalusian shepherd named Santiago who finds himself on a quest to go the Pyramids in Egypt to find treasure. This quest is based on a gypsy's interpretation of Santiago's recurrent dream. This interpretation is further corroborated when he meets an old king who tells him that this quest is his Personal Legend, his destiny that must be fulfilled before it is forgotten through the mundane business of day-to-day living. The inspired Santiago sells his flock and sets off for Africa, where he encounters numerous hurdles, successes, thieves, and friends, that play an integral part in his quest for treasure. Along the way he meets the alchemist, who teaches him more about the universal language and the Soul of the World.

Concepts like a "Personal Legend" and "Soul of the World" sound like the ridiculous material you can expect in any allegory, but they are presented so matter-of-factly and forthrightly in this novel that you are able to understand them without being irritated by any sense of literary high-mindedness. This book is filled with eminently quotable lines and I'm sure anyone who reads it probably walks away with a few favorites that they will quote for the rest of their lives. Like all good stories, it has different things to teach you depending on who you are and what your life is like at the moment, and I have no doubt that if I read this book 20 years from now, I will take away an entirely different message and have entirely different lines and passages that stick with me. But for now, these are the two moments I particularly enjoyed.

When Santiago and the alchemist are waylaid by dangerous tribesmen in the desert, they are asked to explain the contents of the alchemist's pouch, which contains the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone. The alchemist tells the men exactly what these items are: "Whoever swallows that elixir will never be sick again, and a fragment from that stone turns any metal into gold." The men simply laugh at this absurd declaration and let the travelers go on their way. When the stunned Santiago turns to the alchemist and asks him why on earth he would tell those men the truth, the alchemist replies, "To show you one of life's simple lessons...When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed." I found this to be both hilarious and true. You can surmise what that means about how people react to my personal dreams and ambitions at the moment. The other line that made me laugh was when Santiago asks the alchemist if a man's heart always helps and protects him. The alchemist replies, "Mostly just the hearts of those who are trying to realize their Personal Legends. But they do help children, drunkards, and the elderly, too." So remember this, if you are middle-aged and unsure of what your destiny might be, you can always become an alcoholic so that your heart will protect you.

I know the quotes I've mentioned are more humorous than profound, and there were plenty of moments throughout the book which I found truly moving and meaningful. But ultimately you should just seek those out for yourself, because you will find them meaningful for entirely different reasons than I did. So read this novel and get back to me with the quotes that stuck with you. It's a story that teaches you a great deal about how to live your life, and will also reveal a great deal about the way you're currently living your life. Maybe after reading it you will be inspired to discover and follow your Personal Legend. If you do, I promise I won't laugh. 

The Dick Van Dyke Show: A Classic That Never Gets Old

I used to watch The Dick Van Dyke Show years ago on TV Land (my go-to channel for classic TV, as opposed to TCM, which is my go-to for classic film). However, they stopped airing the episodes, presumably because there's so much classic TV out there and only 24 hours in a day to broadcast them all. I already find it frightening that they now air Everybody Loves Raymond as a "classic" show, when it isn't even a decade old. However, much to my surprise and delight, I discovered this week that The Dick Van Dyke Show is back on TV Land, with 2 half-hour episodes from 9-10 am that can really brighten up your day.

Created by comedy legend Carl Reiner, the show was always heralded for its witty writing and timeless episodes. I read Dick Van Dyke's autobiography last year and he mentioned that Reiner always wanted to keep the writing fresh with limited pop culture references so that the episodes would always have a timeless quality. Discounting the fact that the show is black & white, I would argue that it certainly is just as funny and relevant today, with stories and plot lines that can easily rival modern family sitcoms.

At the heart of the show are Rob and Laura Petrie, who are played by the rubber-limbed and charming Dick Van Dyke and multi-talented beauty Mary Tyler Moore. They had so much chemistry together that the show grew to include more of Rob's family life than had ever been intended originally. Laura is a former dancer, now stay-at-home mother of their son Richie, and she and Rob have a loving relationship where they are both equals. This is lovely to see when you know that things weren't always so pleasant among husbands and wives of that era. In fact, the episode I saw two days ago involved Laura temporarily going back to work as a dancer for a week, with Rob hiding his worries and doing his best to be supportive. Of course there's a lot of talk from his friends about how he should stop this nonsense before Laura decides to return to dancing full-time, and of course, he is thoroughly incompetent in the house, making his son endless frozen dinners that make them both miss Laura's cooking. But Rob can't "put his foot down" and deny his wife her dreams, which is what makes this a nice departure from all those other TV husbands (ahem, Ricky Ricardo) who were always quick to mock their wives if they ever thought of leaving the house.

The flip-side of the show concerns Rob's work life as a comedy writer on The Alan Brady Show, a fictional sketch comedy show. His fellow writers are Buddy Sorrell (Morey Amsterdam with a hundred wisecracks a minute) and Sally Rogers (Rose Marie). Sally is like the original Liz Lemon, hilarious, intelligent, always moaning about being single, yet clearly fond of her work. So really, with every episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show, it's like you get to watch Everybody Loves Raymond with some 30 Rock thrown in. These two very different settings allow for a lot of great plots, with scenarios that might be more concerned with what happened at home, what happened at the office, or like the episode when Laura works as a dancer for The Alan Brady Show, some explosive intersection of the two.

If you don't have TV Land, you can find all 159 episodes of the show on Hulu (what would we do without Hulu?!) and to start you off, here's an episode entitled, "The Night the Roof Fell In." It's a classic setup, where both Rob and Laura have had bad days and when they expect some empathy in the evening, they instead get into a fight over who had it worse. Things escalate, but what makes the script so particularly funny and Coupling-esque, is the way that the fight is re-enacted twice, once when Laura is talking about it with her neighbor, Millie (the wonderful Ann Morgan Guilbert, who you may recognize as Yetta, Fran's batty grandmother on The Nanny!), and another time when Rob tells his tale of woe to his colleagues. The audience knows exactly what happened in the fight, but it's hilarious to see these two characters tell VERY different versions of how they behaved, what was said, how they were completely in the right, while the other person was so horrid.

The Dick Van Dyke Show is an excellent example of how great comedy can be mined from simple everyday mishaps. The show's writers often used stories from the cast and crew to come up with ideas for the show. One of the funniest sequences in the show's history occurs in an episode entitled, "The Cat Burglar," when the Petries think someone's in the house and Rob grabs his gun for protection. However, Laura had previously taken out the bullets and stored them in her jewelry box. Unfortunately, the box is a musical one and Rob's attempt to be stealthy is quickly defeated by the fact that every time he attempts to retrieve a bullet, he is treated to a loud rendition of the Blue Danube Waltz. As fantastical as the premise sounds, it is based entirely on a real-life incident with Dick Van Dyke and his wife at their home.

This anecdote only goes to show you that life itself is a comedy. You just need some great writers to throw in witty dialogue, some actors who can perform marvelous feats of physical comedy, and you get a 25-minute piece of television gold.

Paradise Lost: A Documentary Trilogy That Called For Justice

HBO's Paradise Lost was a documentary released in 1996 that followed the trials of three teenage boys in West Memphis, Arkansas, who were convicted of the brutal murder of three eight-year old boys in 1993. The filmmakers, Joe Berlinger and Joe Sinofsky, spent 79 days over a 10-month period in Arkansas interviewing the families of the victims, the accused teens, the police, lawyers, and everyone else involved in the case. What initially set out to be a straightforward documentary, however, turned into a probing look at how this investigation was being conducted, and a growing certainty on the part of the filmmakers that these three teenagers were actually innocent.

The details of the case would take too long to go into here, but the gist of it is that the West Memphis Police Department became convinced that the murders were part of a Satanic ritual. And their suspicions immediately fell on 18-year old Damien Echols, a kid who wore black, professed to be Wiccan, liked listening to heavy metal music, and must therefore be a Satanist. The police brought in another suspect, 17-year old Jessie Misskelley for questioning, and by the end of a 12-hour interrogation (only 45 minutes of which were taped), Misskelley confessed to being present at the crime scene and helping Echols and his friend, the 16-year old Jason Baldwin, murder the three boys. This led to the arrest of all three boys, and subsequent trials and convictions that were all documented by the Paradise Lost crew. Throughout the trial, the boys maintained they were innocent and serious doubt was thrown on the validity of Misskelley's confession. Miskelley had an IQ of 72, was alone during his interrogation and claims he didn't understand his Miranda rights, and the tape of his confession clearly shows him getting the details of the crime wrong but gradually being led by the police to change his story so that his details would fit the facts. Most startling of all was the vitriol that Echols faced simply due to his different appearance and behavior and everyone's utter certainty that he must be a devil-worshipping murderer. The three teens were convicted in 1994, with Baldwin and Miskelley receiving sentences of life imprisonment and Echols receiving the death penalty. 

When Paradise Lost was released, it incited a lot of discussion and a growing concern that these boys had been misrepresented and wrongfully convicted. Aside from Misskelley's "confession," there was no definite evidence linking them to the crime and they largely seemed to have been convicted on the basis of irrational fears of people who wore black and listened to Metallica. The trio became known as the West Memphis Three and a website was started to inform the public and get donations for a fund to help the defense find experts to examine the evidence and appeal the court's decision. So in 2000, the sequel, Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, was released on HBO, which detailed the growing Free the West Memphis Three movement and the involvement of forensic experts and criminal profilers who were adamant that these three boys could not have commited a crime of this magnitude. They didn't think there was anything Satanic about the crime scene and there was increasing suspicion placed on the stepfather of one of the boys, who appeared to be unstable and could quite possibly have been the one to commit the murders in the first place. You really have to watch these documentaries to see the twists and turns that the case takes, and at one point, the film crew find themselves in possession of a knife that they have to turn in as evidence that could possibly be linked to the case. The whole thing has the tone of a compelling murder mystery that would make great fiction but is unfortunately highly tragic fact. 

Last night I watched Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the final installment in the saga of the West Memphis Three. It was released on HBO just a few weeks ago, almost 12 years after the last installment, and was initially meant to revisit the case and new evidence that had come to light. In 2007, new DNA evidence was found that could not be linked to the West Memphis Three and therefore further supported the idea that they were not involved in these murders. Some of the DNA actually matched another family member of one of the murdered boys, who was also found to be lying about when he had last seen the boys, which goes to show that even decades after a crime, investigative work can still turn up new leads. The documentary followed the lawyers' attempts to get the Arkansas Supreme Court to admit this new DNA evidence and grant a re-trial for the three boys (now men) with further allegations of juror misconduct and evidence that the initial trial in 1994 was deeply flawed. All this time, Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley have undergone numerous failed appeals and have spent 18 years in prison. That is 18 years more than they ever expected when they were first arrested and were certain that no one could imprison them for a crime they did not commit. 

It is startling to see the evolution of these documentaries, both thematically and cinematically, but most importantly, the evolution in the characters that make up this real-life tragedy. The West Memphis Three started out as three bewildered teenagers and have now grown into 30-something men, who have spent more time in prison than they ever spent as free men. Damien Echols had a newborn son when he went to prison; his son is now the same age as his father was when he was arrested. And yet, all three men are remarkably calm, resigned to their current fate, but staunchly declaring their innocence and grateful for all of the help from the West Memphis Three groups who have been fighting for years to find new evidence and find new experts to convince the state of Arkansas to overturn these wrongful convictions. 

The truly great moment of Paradise Lost 3 is the epilogue. The movie was meant to be released in the fall of 2011, but was pushed back to 2012 when the filmmakers had to rush down to Arkansas for a circuit court hearing that was abruptly called to discuss the case on August 19, 2011. On that day, the defense lawyers worked out a deal with the state, allowing the West Memphis Three to enter Alford pleas. The Alford plea is a bizarre legal maneuver that allowed the men to declare that they were innocent of the crime, but still plead guilty to lesser charges and be set free since they had already served 18 year sentences. In one very emotional moment, Jason Baldwin declares that he didn't want to take this plea because it was unjust to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit. But he accepted the plea because Damien was still on death row and could not afford to lose any more appeals or be found guilty in a re-trial.

So the West Memphis Three are now free men, thanks in part to a series of documentaries that never stopped looking for the truth and thousands of people across the globe who supported them and funded the defense team so that new evidence could be brought to light. The story is bittersweet - by entering Alford pleas, justice hasn't really been done, because these men are still considered guilty of the crime and the real killer hasn't been found. But as Damien Echols says upon his release, he can now work outside of the prison to continue the investigation. The story is by no means over. 

A Letter to Three Wives: Three Leading Ladies Versus One Vamp

Oscar nominations came out today but rather than discuss a recent movie, this post is about a 1949 Oscar winner for Best Directing & Writing. Starring the wonderful trio of Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern, A Letter to Three Wives is one of those comic masterpieces that boast powerhouse performances, a tight script packed with whip-smart dialogue, and an improbable but hilarious premise that keeps you guessing till the very end.

The movie opens with the narrator, a woman named Addie Ross who snarkily introduces us to her three so-called "friends," Debra Bishop (Crain), Rita Phipps (Sothern), and Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell in a scene-stealing performance as a poor girl trying to make it with a rich man). It's a Saturday morning and the three women are getting ready to volunteer at a children's picnic while their husbands have all begged off with some excuse or the other. When they get to the dock (they have to take a boat to get to the picnic site), Lora Mae reports the news that Addie Ross has disappeared. She rented out her house, grabbed her things, left town overnight, and no one knows why. Just as they are speculating, a messenger arrives with a letter from the missing Addie. Bursting with curiosity, the women tear it open. After some simpering declarations of how much she will miss her three best friends, Addie drops her bombshell. She has run off with one of the three women's husbands, "so that she will always have something to remind her of her three best friends."

The stunned women board their boat and head for the picnic. With no access to a phone, they are forced to wait until the Country Club dance later that night to discover whose husband won't be showing up. As their day progresses we see three different flashbacks that tell us something about each woman's marriage and why she has reason to worry that her husband might be the one who has run off with Addie. And as you see their stories unfold, you become just as impatient as they are to return home and discover who is going to be alone at that dance.

The ending is neatly tied up and is appropriately warm and satisfying, characteristic of the comedies of that era. Writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz won two Oscars for this movie, a feat he repeated the next year for the much more famous All About Eve. He seems to have excelled at directing movies about interesting and clever women and got great performances out of these already great actresses. The actors playing the husbands are also a fine lot, including an unrecognizable Kirk Douglas in a much lighter and comic role than usual. Ultimately this is not the dark Oscar fare we've come to expect, but a much more effervescent and charming film that will keep you entertained for a solid two hours.

This movie was featured as one of The Essentials, a weekly feature every Saturday at 8 pm on Turner Classic Movies. Look for this channel on your cable line-up if you haven't already - it's my go-to whenever I need to indulge in some classic cinema fare. The great thing about old movies is that they're widely available, so if you don't have TCM, you can still check to see if your local library has a copy on hand. And failing that, there's another ingenious option. A lot of these movies were adapted for radio and there are online archives of the original broadcasts. I made a marvelous discovery yesterday: the Screen Guild Theatre broadcast a 30-minute adaptation of this movie with Linda Darnell and Paul Douglas reprising their roles, and you can listen to the whole thing at this link (scroll down to # 342 on the media player). This archive features over 300 adaptations of other masterpieces like The Philadelphia Story, Suspicion, Laura, etc., so if you needed some audio entertainment, you're covered for the foreseeable future.

Many people scoff at old movies and their eyes glaze over at the mere sight of black & white cinema. But lack of color does not equate to lack of sophistication. The actors are stellar, the stories well-crafted, and the scripts are deft and agile. Comedies of this era had to be extra devious and witty to get by all the censors, and the scripts are often packed with double entendres that will make your head spin. If you needed any more evidence that A Letter to Three Wives is a true classic, I offer you incontrovertible proof: the movie was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons entitled, Moe Letter Blues.

I'm not saying all old movies are great. There are plenty of duds among them, just like for every Hugo or The Descendants of our modern age, we get another awful Adam Sandler "comedy". But don't be quick to dismiss all old movies, because there are true gems among them that still deserve to be seen and revered. After all, these movies were winning Oscars long before anyone named Clooney, Scorsese, or Streep came along.

Arthur Christmas: Even Santas Need Help Getting Into the Christmas Spirit

I know it's late to be touting a Christmas movie, but since you're probably wishing you had a day off again, you might be open to some Yuletide cheer. And Arthur Christmas is just the movie for the job. Brought to you by the brilliant people of Aardman Animations (the ones responsible for the stop-motion claymation wizardry of Wallace & Gromit), this film will enchant and delight you from the very first second.

Unlike Aardman's previous claymation works, this movie is presented in straightforward computer animation (with 3D in select theatres of course, but I didn't see the 3D version). It looks beautiful, just as well thought-out and designed as their previous films, although presumably requiring a lot less manpower and time to create. The story is set in the modern-day North Pole, where Santa's annual mission to deliver presents to the 2 billion children of the world is a vastly technological enterprise, complete with a high-tech sleigh that is the size of a small city and contains ports through which elves can rappel down, drop off a present in their designated house, and race back up within a few minutes. Santa (real name: Malcolm) is mostly a figurehead who is guided by elves to drop off presents in a few houses and look like he's keeping up the Christmas spirit. The man working behind the scenes is his son, Steve (voiced with sneering glee by Hugh Laurie), who coordinates all the satellites, GPS navigators, and thousands of elves that go into making Christmas run as smoothly as possible. Steve is all about efficiency and guzzling espresso, in stark contrast to his younger brother, Arthur. 

Voiced charmingly by James McAvoy, Arthur is the bumbling, clumsy son, sentenced to work in the mailroom where he answers all of the letters to Santa written by children across the world. Even though Arthur wreaks havoc if he sets foot in the control room, knocking over elves and inadvertently flipping switches or setting off alarms, he is thoroughly invested in writing back to these children and looks forward to Christmas with more happy anticipation than anyone else in his family. For everyone else, Christmas is the family business, something they have to do perfectly and then be done with on December 25th. But for Arthur, Christmas is the greatest day of the year, featuring the greatest man he knows - his father, Santa.

The trouble arises when the night's mission is seemingly over and everyone is getting ready for bed. A gift-wrapping elf named Bryony (a hilariously squeaky Scottish creature voiced by Ashley Jensen) is clearing up the control room when she discovers a gift that (gasp!) didn't get delivered. Somewhere in Cornwall, there's a little girl named Gwen who won't get the pink bike she asked for. Naturally this breaks Arthur's heart, but his father and Steve just shrug it off as being within the margin of error. But Arthur can't let it go so he teams up with Bryony and his granddad (Grand Santa, who has ulterior motives of his own for this act of decency) to race to Cornwall before sunrise and deliver Gwen's present.

The movie proceeds with whimsy, heart, and hilarity, the combination you'd expect from an Aardman picture. There are sight gags and one-liners littered throughout the film and while young children will love the animation and story, only adults can truly appreciate the humor. The voice actors do a splendid job and the story is a surprising and fun twist on the classic tale of Santa up at the North Pole with his reindeer and sleigh. The ending is appropriately heartwarming and the journey you take to get there is fantastic. 

With Arthur Christmas, Aardman Animations has revealed that they are a force to be reckoned with in computer animation. This movie didn't do that well at the box office, probably because most people think any non-Pixar animated film is a waste of time and aren't aware of Aardman's pedigree (come on, they won an Oscar for a Wallace & Gromit short!). But I hope the film gains a wider audience and appreciation upon its DVD release. If Aardman continues to make movies with such excellent scripts, actors, and characters, it won't be long before everyone will be impatiently awaiting the next Aardman Animations release, right alongside that Pixar summer blockbuster.

Arthur & Bryony: a man and an elf on a mission

War Horse: Galloping Through History

War Horse did not make me cry. And after watching the movie, I must confess some surprise at all the acclaim and Best Picture nominations and stories of grown men reduced to tears. Even if Joey, the horse at the center of War Horse, is as relatable as any human soldier going into battle, this is a level of cinematic adoration that's beyond me.

The story is based on a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo and is fairly straightforward. We are introduced to Joey at the moment of his birth. He is purchased by an English farmer after a very rash auction bid, but his son Albert (Jeremy Irvine in his very first film role), persuades his parents that he can train this horse to be a serviceable plough horse. Albert has no equestrian experience but over the course of training Joey, the two develop a deep bond and love for each other. Unfortunately, 1914 dawns, bringing with it the Great War. Albert's father, without consulting his son, decides to sell Joey to a cavalryman, Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston). Albert finds out and races to Joey's side but the sale is final and he has to say goodbye to his beloved horse.

As the movie progresses you follow Joey's dangerous and fateful journey through cavalry charges and barbed-wire trenches, as well as his encounters with German soldiers, French civilians, and a host of people who are just trying to make it through the war alive. Time and time again Joey is miraculously saved from death, and despite the allegiances of the people who take charge of him, they are all horse lovers who feel an instant affinity and protective instinct for this magnificent animal.

This is a tale of one good thing that happened amidst all the horrors of warfare. All the killing and brutality of World War I is present but mostly in the periphery where it could be missed by young viewers who are more concerned with the action that's right upfront. It barely merits its PG-13 rating and probably flies as PG in other countries. This is a great film for children, an age-appropriate introduction to one of the worst events of human history. And let's not forget, it's directed by Steven Spielberg, a master at setting the scene, relating a compelling story, and no stranger to making a war movie. The film is visually stunning, but it feels slow and consists of multiple set pieces to show how Joey gets from one place to another before he is finally reunited with Albert. There is one scene however that I genuinely loved. It takes place near the end and involves the No Man's Land between the English and German trenches. The soldiers from both sides spy Joey who is trapped in some barbed wire and what follows is one of those grand moments when soldiers recognize their common bond as human beings and put their political differences aside.

Most people I know loved War Horse much more than I did, so you could probably watch it and agree that it is a masterpiece. My ambivalence is due to the fact that I need my war movies to be slightly less sugarcoated. I have nothing against movies based on children's books (after all, I thought Hugo was one of the most stunning films of the year), but when your topic is World War I, it takes a little more than a story about a boy and his horse to really draw me in.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Kicking Ass and Taking Names

I planned to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when it released on Christmas Day, but somehow other movies intervened and I only watched it last weekend. This was a grievous delay because this movie is amazing.

I was a huge fan of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy featuring intrepid Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, pierced, and brilliant hacker Lisbeth Salander. The books are nail-biting thrillers that feature villains who never seem to stop getting more evil and each chapter brings more horrors and delights. The Swedes have already filmed the entire trilogy, with Noomi Rapace playing Lisbeth and Michael Nyqvist playing Mikael. I only saw the first movie and it was great. However, the joy of watching this Hollywood version is that it has amped up the production value while still remaining insanely true to the books. In fact, as transformed as Noomi Rapace was in the characater of Lisbeth, Rooney Mara probably fits the bill even more as the scrawny yet fierce woman who spends the film wreaking vengeance upon her enemies and helping Blomkvist (played by the ever-marvelous Daniel Craig) find a "killer of women." 

I knew I would love this movie just from the opening credits which feature a series of dark fluid images set to Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross' pulse-pounding score, with Karen O's shrieking vocals thrown in for good measure. This is a David Fincher movie through and through and even if the subject matter wasn't so compelling, I'd have loved the movie for its visuals alone. The snow-covered Vanger estate will make you shiver and you just can't tear your eyes away from the screen as you watch Rooney Mara get even with her enemies. The brutality of the books is not sugarcoated in any way and some scenes will certainly make your stomach turn. But what surprised me the most was how Fincher still managed to inject plenty of humor into this film. The audience I watched this movie with was particularly keen to laugh uproariously at every one-liner, perhaps due to their need for catharsis after all the rape and dismemberment. 

The actors are all pitch-perfect in their portrayals of these well-known characters and the film proceeds at a fierce pace that keeps the adrenaline going. The only jarring note is that Craig does not seem to have a Swedish accent at all. Everyone else pulls off some semblance of an accent (Mara probably does it best) but Craig sounds completely English, which led me to wonder if he ever does accents in his other films. I think he just clenches his jaw, enunciates less, and hopes that he doesn't sound too English. But despite this minor blip, he is a fine Blomkvist and is the ideal complement to Mara's Salander. 

I am shocked that the movie hasn't received more attention for awards this year. Rooney Mara is deservedly being lauded for her performance and got a Golden Globe nomination (though unbelievably she wasn't nominated for the SAG or Critics Choice Awards), but the movie itself ought to be recognized as the masterpiece that it is. The American Film Institute and National Board of Review have listed the movie in their Top 10 Films of the year, but I fail to understand why it didn't get nominated at the Golden Globes or Critics Choice Awards. Hopefully the Oscars will rectify this oversight, because David Fincher should be receiving Best Director nominations all over the place and the film needs to get some major love. It hasn't performed too well at the box office, but this was a hard movie to sell as Christmas fare and I can only hope that more people go to see it now that the holidays are done with. 

The day after watching this film, I woke up with a craving for coffee and open sandwiches and I am still suffering from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo withdrawal. For now I'll console myself with the Swedish films, but I cannot wait for Fincher, Mara, and Craig to return and finish up the trilogy in style. 

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A Movie That Will Make Your Head Hurt (In A Good Way?)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is one of those quintessentially British movies that you get every award season. An all-star cast with familiar British faces (Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt) and the rising stars (Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch), it's a recipe for greatness. Plus it's based on a great novel by John Le Carre and they're all playing MI6 agents: what could go wrong?

Well, depends on who you ask. I thought it was a great film. But I am also a massive Anglophile who thinks anything with Colin Firth has to be a hit. Truth be told, this movie is a bit of a struggle to understand, an opinion that was shared by my friend Christina who saw the film on the same day as me. When we got to talking, we discovered that both of us had identical reactions once we got home. We went on Wikipedia and read the film synopsis. And I believe this will be most people's reaction. The movie is so intricately plotted and twisty that no matter how hard you try, you're going to find yourself lost on some plot point or the other, and that is when Wikipedia is your friend.

The movie is set in the 1970s and follows George Smiley (Oldman), a long-serving agent who has been forced into retirement but is brought back for a covert mission to identify a Soviet mole in the upper echelons of MI6. There are 4 suspects and their code names are Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, and Poorman. Smiley was himself a suspect (codename: Beggarman) but is now considered trustworthy enough to take over the investigation and determine whose codename should really be "Spy." Unlike that other British spy franchise, Smiley is no James Bond. He spends most of the movie sitting in an armchair, sipping some whiskey, and going through reams of paperwork. Indeed, this movie is perhaps the most accurate depiction of what it means to be a spy. Instead of waltzing about in tuxes, notching bedposts, and blowing up villains from their Aston Martins, these spies are clad in tweed, reading over typewritten telephone transcripts and desperately hoping for a telegram that will give them a lead in their investigation.

There are several flashbacks as Smiley considers his colleagues and tries to figure out which of them could be a traitor. Perhaps I was spoiled by Lost, where every flashback was preceded by that whooshing sound that alerted you that you would be jumping backwards (or forwards) in time, but Tinker Tailor does no such thing, which often leaves you highly confused as to whether you are witnessing the past or the present. Sometimes it is very evident, but at other times it is remarkably confusing. I spent half an hour convinced that one of the scenes was a flashback only to discover that the man I thought was dead was actually very much alive and that scene was in the present.

The other problem is the vast array of characters. Unfortunately Colin Firth's character is not named Colin Firth: sometimes people refer to him as "Bill," other times as "Haydon." Since Firth isn't the only character with a name, you are faced with a mass of jumbled first names and last names of all the suspects, all the investigators, all the villains, etc. and untangling them all will make your head spin. So it took me about an hour to finally consolidate the fact that Firth's character was named Bill Haydon and not Bill Bland, or Jim Haydon, or whatever.

These difficulties aside, the film boasts an impressive production design, with costumes and sets that will steep you in the atmosphere of 1970's Britain. It has the look and feel of an old-school spy thriller and even if there isn't much action, the moments leading up to the discovery of "Spy" are just as suspenseful and nerve-wracking as any high-octane thriller. Every single actor gives a fantastic performance and they look like they are having a grand time playing MI6 agents, as you hope they would.

Overall, this is an impeccable period piece that pays homage to the fact that being a spy was really messy work 40 years ago when you didn't have computers and gadgets to streamline the proceedings. Maybe the difficulty in following the plot is actually meant to make you feel like a spy yourself, desperately trying to follow up the leads and untangle the information before the final denouement. After all, by the time I was done discussing the film with my friend and going over all the loose ends I had missed, I felt like I had completed a covert mission of my own.

Just a few of the stellar Brits that make up the confusingly-named cast of characters.

Being Elmo: The Man Behind the Muppet

Being Elmo is the story of Kevin Clash, one of the most famous men you have probably never heard of. He gave life to Elmo, Sesame Street's beloved furry red muppet, and his story will delight you. Because it is very simply the story of a man who loved puppets.

Clash became obsessed with puppets from an early age, starting with his love for Captain Kangaroo and then an obsession with Sesame Street as soon as it premiered in 1969. He watched every TV special featuring Jim Henson, the genius responsible for the Muppets, and watched Henson and his colleagues discuss simple puppet-making techniques on various TV specials. Finally, one day he saw the fur lining in his father's coat and inspiration struck. Without further thought, he cut it up and fashioned a monkey puppet, the first of many. Terrified at what his father would say when he saw his decimated coat, Clash was shocked to hear his father's response, "You could have just asked!" In fact, his parents knew then and there that Clash had a gift and they supported him 100% as he proceeded to fill up the house with dozens of puppets. You can't help but admire parents like these - they were so excited to see his talent that it never once crossed their mind that puppeteering might be considered an odd career choice.

In high school, Clash continued to play with puppets and performed at various venues in Baltimore to entertain children. He was spied by a local TV producer and started appearing on a children's TV show on Channel 2 with his collection of puppets in tow. During his senior year of high school, he had a class trip to high school, and his mother made one of his greatest wishes come true. She got in touch with Kermit Love, one of Jim Henson's main collaborators and designers of many of the Sesame Street Muppets, and arranged a meeting with him at the Muppet Studios. This was in 1978 and it seems almost ridiculous to imagine such a thing happening now. How would you ever be able to call up a high-profile man like Kermit Love and just ask him if he had the time to see your son? But it was a simpler time and Kermit was a man brimming with good will and an eagerness to meet young puppeteers. Clash got to tour the studios, learn all about the Henson stitch, and find out what materials they used to make the Muppets. The next year, he was invited back to New York to serve on the Sesame Street float for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade as the puppeteer for Cookie Monster.

During the 1980's, Clash worked on various shows in New York, including his beloved Captain Kangaroo, and finally in 1984, the stars aligned and he became an official puppeteer for Sesame Street. One day, the puppeteer who was trying to make something out of a furry red Muppet named Elmo got frustrated and threw the puppet onto Clash's lap. Clash picked Elmo up, decided to give this character a second life, and the rest is history.

Man or Muppet?

What is so remarkable about this documentary is how jam-packed it is with people who are supportive, encouraging, and determined to help Clash achieve his dreams. This is no sad-sack documentary about overcoming the odds. Instead, it fiercely champions the idea that if you love something and have a genuine passion for it, you can go all the way and realize your most impossible dreams. The mentors that Clash picks up along the way, men like Kermit Love and Jim Henson, are all the more remarkable because they just open their arms and welcome in this hitherto unknown boy. They recognize his immense talent and that is the only thing they care about. They teach him everything they know about puppeteering and designing the Muppets, and in return he gives them everything's he's got.

Elmo's defining characteristic is love. All he wants is to hug and kiss the kids and celebrities he meets on Sesame Street or around the world, and that is what makes him such a universally loved character. No one even seems to notice Clash as he works the puppet, their eyes are solely on Elmo. However, Elmo is simply an extension of Clash, his parents, and the people who have loved and supported him through the years. Elmo's unconditional love is just a reflection of the love that Clash has received through his journey to Sesame Street. And now that he's made it, we get to see how he passes on the legacy by inviting the future generation of puppeteers to the Muppet workshop and answering all of their questions about materials, stitches, or puppet manipulation.

Sesame Street has always been a warm and welcoming place. It is now clear that this is because the men and women behind those Muppets are every bit as warm, loving, and wonderful as the characters they portray.

Beginners: A Slice of a Rather Interesting Life

I've been wanting to see Beginners ever since I saw the theatrical trailer in front of some movie (maybe Jane Eyre?) in March. It looked interesting: with Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent (of Inglourious Basterds fame), and Christopher Plummer (that's Captain von Trapp, Sound of Music lovers), I couldn't help but be intrigued. But sadly it had a terribly limited release sometime in the summer and I never got around to seeing it until now.

This movie is decidedly not going to please everyone. You could argue that not a lot happens from the beginning to the end as you follow the life of Oliver (McGregor) who is learning to deal with the death of his father and starting up a tentative relationship with Anna, a French actress he meets at a party (the incandescent Laurent). But while Oliver's tale might be slow, the story of his father Hal (Plummer in a wonderfully whimsical and upbeat guise) is what makes the movie so special. 

After his wife's death, Hal, who is now 75, comes out to his son Oliver. Through a series of flashbacks, Oliver gives us the story of his father's coming out, the way he threw himself into Gay Pride, found a new circle of friends and embarked on the second act of his life the way he had always wanted to live it. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died 4 years after coming out. But during those 4 years, he lived his new life joyously, calling Oliver up in the middle of the night to talk about his visit to a gay bar, his discovery of house music, and discussing the personals ad he wrote to find a man who would be interested in a relationship with a newly gay man in his 70s. It's both ridiculous and sublime, and it's little wonder that Plummer got a Golden Globe nomination for his work in this film. You've never seen a man happier than Hal is to come out of the closet.

Oliver is much more quiet and subdued, but he clearly adores his father. He is supportive, loving, indulgent, and takes great care of him till the very end. He is also an artist who tells his story more through his art than his actions. Throughout the movie, whenever Oliver mentions a year, e.g. the year his father was born, he will further illustrate it with photographs that reveal, "This is who the President was," "This is what the sun looked like," "This is what 'pretty' looked like," etc. It is surprisingly effective to see whole swathes of history reduced to these still images that do such a wonderful job of capturing the essence of their era. And really, that's what Beginners feels like. An attempt to capture this moment in history with a series of beautiful images, warm characters, and love stories.

The movie is actually autobiographical for writer-director Mike Mills, which lends a valuable dimension of authenticity to the story. Beginners is a loving tribute to his father and also an ode to the visual spectacle of cinema as a storytelling medium. Sometimes these slice-of-life stories can be a drag, but by giving us slices out of the lives of so many extraordinary characters, Mills has crafted a much more intricate movie that reveals how much things can change in the course of a lifetime. And that you are never too old to begin again.

Hal & Oliver: a father-son duo that will gladden your heart 

Seminar: Snape Swearing at Students, What More Do You Need to Know?

I'll admit, Harry Potter is somewhat of an unhealthy obsession in my life. I went to see How To Succeed in Business just so I could see Daniel Radcliffe in the flesh, and it's the reason I went to see Seminar, the Broadway play starring Alan Rickman, aka Professor Snape. But even if you can't tell your Philosopher's Stone from your Deathly Hallow, you would have to be seriously devoid of any sense of humor to not enjoy this play. The show's run ends in February, so get to the Golden Theatre at once!

Seminar is the story of four writers who have hired a famous writer/editor (Rickman) for 10 weekly sessions of a private writing seminar. The play opens with these four people and at first, you are hard-pressed to find anything to like about them. Douglas (Jerry O'Connell) is the pretentious nightmare, the one who uses words  like"interiority" and "exteriority," expounds upon the shimmering beauty of Nature that led him to the genre of magical realism, and has decent connections in the literary world courtesy of his uncle. Kate (Lily Rabe) is quick to be offended, a somewhat militant feminist who disdains any mention of Jack Kerouac and is forever referring to her years spent in Bennington College. Izzy (Hetienne Park) is the free-spirited Asian girl who doesn't think twice about using her sexuality to get ahead. Which leaves Martin (Hamish Linklater), who hates Douglas's pretentions, knows Kate from high school, is nursing a secret crush for Izzy, and likes to expound on the importance of language and the craft of writing. This could easily become snooze-inducing stuff, but the one-liners, character eviscerations, and witty sarcasm considerably enliven the proceedings.

Once Alan Rickman swans onto the stage, the laughs don't stop coming. He is a pompous, arrogant, and brutally honest critic, who completely decimates Kate's manuscript during the first session after reading just the first 5 words on the page. He likes to give long monologues about all the things he's done, like roaming around war-torn countries and meeting HIV-ridden beggars in Rwanda. When he announces that he's leaving for a 2-week trip to Somalia, Kate declares, "I hope they shoot him!" He is thoroughly unlikable, but that's why you like him so much, which is a mind-bending feat of acting skill.

The play abounds with high-brow writerly language that is then instantly cast aside for furiously hurled expletives. Over the course of the hour and forty minutes, the characters' relationships evolve or devolve as necessary. All the relationship stuff is amusing, but the real joy of the play is to just watch these 5 people mock each other, mock other writers, mock literature, and mock the world. The playwright, Theresa Rebeck, has a real knack for being able to craft a joke out of anything. Just when you think things are getting a little too heavy, someone will make a wry declaration that elicits a chuckle and the comedy is back in full force.

Writers as a group are heartily inclined to take themselves too seriously. Seminar is a wonderful reminder that even though fine prose, poetry, and plays are great things, sometimes a hearty insult is the best manifestation of the beauty of the English language.

A decidedly cheery Rickman with his Muggle co-stars

Downton Abbey: Disastrous Events Are No Excuse To Forget Your Manners

Last night marked the triumphant return of Downton Abbey to the PBS Masterpiece Classic schedule. Created by Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning scribe of Gosford Park, the series was a breakout hit when it aired stateside last January. The second season aired in the fall in the UK, but US viewers finally have the chance to (legally) watch it now.

If you have been living under a rock this past year and did not catch Downton fever, let me catch you up. The series begins in 1912 and revolves around the aristocrats and servants who live at Downton Abbey, a lavish Yorkshire estate. The fictional Downton is filmed at the very real Highclere Castle and that setting alone will make you gasp. A mere 100 years ago, people actually lived like this, and part of Downton's appeal is how it gets you to yearn for this life and then realize you'd go insane if you had to live with that many rules and regulations.

The heads of the household are Lord and Lady Grantham, a loving couple with three daughters. Unfortunately, their daughters cannot inherit Downton because it is tied up in entail and can only go to a male heir. They've sorted out this problem because the eldest daughter, Mary, is engaged to her cousin, the son of the heir presumptive, so the estate will ultimately be kept in the hands of the family. Unfortunately, it's 1912. Remember what big historical event took place in 1912? The Titanic sank. And in the world of Downton Abbey, this is a devastating tragedy because the heirs to the estate sank along with it. So now they have to scramble to figure out who the next heir is. Enter Matthew Crawley, a lawyer who lives with his mother in London. Now he finds himself poised to inherit a title, an estate, and the enmity of all these people who think it is terribly unfair that a relative stranger will get to take away their home.

This is just how the show begins. And that's just the plot for the first half hour or so. The rest of the series proceeds in whiplash-inducing fashion, with twists and turns in every episode and a plethora of hysterical one-liners courtesy of the Dowager Countess (Lord Grantham's mother) played with searing sarcasm by Dame Maggie Smith. These are just the problems with the upstairs characters. Downstairs, there's a whole mess of intrigue, jealousy, and romance raging among the various footmen, butlers, maids, cooks, dogsbodies, etc. that make up the household staff.

If you haven't watched Downton Abbey yet, you are genuinely missing out on a cultural phenomenon. This is an impeccably written, hugely entertaining, vastly enjoyable piece of television history and you need to at least give it a try before you completely dismiss it. One of the best things to happen on the Twitterverse over Christmas was that comedian Patton Oswalt started watching the Season 1 DVD of Downton and proceeded to regale his Twitter followers with his instant love for the drama. This was his first tweet and if you care to scroll through his subsequent revelations, his enthusiasm is quite catching. You have until Jan 17th to watch the entire first season on the PBS website and then you can get started with the second season which takes place during World War I and sees Downton transformed into a convalescent home. The stakes are even higher, the drama (and the comedy) get even more exhilarating, and I loved every minute of it. Yes, I found a way to watch the entire second season already and it was a highlight of my fall TV schedule. And the Christmas special that wrapped up the season was the most astonishingly feel-good bit of TV I had experienced all year.

The series won a bunch of Emmy's in September and is nominated for a bunch of Golden Globes this Sunday. If I have anything to say about it (which I don't) they are definitely going home with some trophies, especially Maggie Smith. Now go ahead. You have a lot of amazing television to watch, and if this is your first time at Downton Abbey, I truly envy you.

The gigantic cast, all of whom deserve a Golden Globe of their very own

Friday Night Lights: Football Like You've Never Seen It Before

I would be the first to admit that I think football is a ridiculous sport (for the benefit of non-US readers, let me just clarify that I mean American football, the kind that rarely involves a foot touching the ball). I have never watched an entire game, I don't understand any of the rules, all I know is that it involves running on a field and carrying the ball to the end to score a touchdown. I don't understand the scoring system, I'm not entirely sure how many players there are, and I only know the names of some positions. So the idea that I would watch Friday Night Lights, a show that is all about a Texas high school football team, seems rather ludicrous.

However, for the past 5 years I have been hearing non-stop praise for this show. The critics were particularly effusive this year when the show finished its fifth and final season and was nominated for some Emmys. The show had been snubbed so often that people were desperate for it to gain recognition in its final year, and luckily it did pick up awards for Kyle Chandler as Outstanding Lead Actor and Jason Katims for Outstanding Writing. Since I was finished with all available seasons of Mad Men, I figured it was about time to give FNL a chance, so I loaded up the first season on my iPad and set off for the gym.

It took precisely one episode for me to become a raving fan. The show might profess to be about football, but it is really about the people in this small town of Dillon, Texas, where football reigns supreme and is the main chance for these kids to make something of themselves. The series begins as Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) arrives in Dillon as the new Head Coach of the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers. He has a solid relationship with star quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter), but is facing immense pressure from the townspeople and the press who need him to take this team all the way to the state championships. Anything less would be a failure. With his loving wife Tammy (Connie Britton) and weary-of-moving daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) by his side, Coach Taylor forges ahead, trying to instill the importance of football in his players and make them forget all the other stuff. All that matters is the game and their team motto: Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Off the field, he is the consummate family man, engaging in sincere, often hilarious conversations with his daughter as he attempts to give her "fatherly advice" and placate his much put-upon wife.

In the very first game of the season, Jason Street is involved in a horrible accident and has to be carted off in the field on a stretcher. While the town reels with the shock, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) the back-up quarterback has to take the reins and lead his team. He is shy, underconfident, has never started in a game, and is terrified. No one expects anything from him at all. But you, the viewer, have been sucked in at this point. As the game proceeds, interspersed with montages of Jason being operated on at the hospital, your heart is in your mouth. When Matt throws that last desperate pass that may or may not win the game, I almost fell off the elliptical in the gym and elicited a lot of weird looks from other people as I desperately tried not to cheer, "Go Panthers!" All this from a girl who doesn't know the first thing about football.

Kyle Chandler & Connie Britton, aka Coach & Mrs. Taylor:
the best TV couple EVER

The rest of the season proceeded to amaze me every bit as much as the first episode. After the Emmys, some critics wistfully declared their wish that Connie Britton had managed to win Outstanding Lead Actress as well. At the time I thought they were being greedy, but now I am outraged that she didn't win an award for her performance as Tammy Taylor, a woman whose picture should be in the dictionary as the sole definition of the word "sassy." Tammy can praise you or eviscerate you with a single sentence and as the loving but determined school guidance counselor, she provides just as much support for the entire town of Dillon as she does for her family. The actors playing the high schoolers are absolute marvels, with Scott Porter bringing strength, resilience, and vulnerability to the character of Jason Street, while Zach Gilford evolves from nobody to star quarterback right in front of your eyes. Sure these kids seem to have way more adult problems than even the adults of Dillon, but that's what you get with high schoolers on TV. And these kids are always dreaming about how to get out of Dillon and worrying about their future, so it's little wonder that they grow up so fast.

I also have to mention the soundtrack. The opening theme is composed by W. G. Snuffy Walden who composed all the original music for the series. Even after 22 episodes, I still get goosebumps when listening to the opening swell of music that promises so much heartfelt drama, humor, and action up ahead. The episodes are filled with amazing songs, particularly "Devil Town," which I will never be able to hear again without recalling the noble and desperate town of Dillon. 

I've heard that the second season is a bit of a letdown, and given the sheer brilliance of the first season, it really does have a lot to live up to. I just saw the first few episodes and it has wandered into dangerously Gossip Girl/Beverly Hills 90210 territory. But the next three seasons are supposedly back to form, so I will persevere. I was terribly disappointed to discover that the second season is only 15 episodes long due to the Writer's Strike of 2007-8, and the subsequent seasons were only 13 episodes since NBC shuttled the show off to DirectTV. But I'll save my complaints for when I get to the series finale. And given how invested I've already become in these characters, I foresee some massive Friday Night Lights withdrawal up ahead. 

Sherlock: Solving Crimes Has Never Been More Stimulating

I've already raved on this blog about Steven Moffat and his genius knack for writing the best TV episodes on either side of the Atlantic. So it should come as no surprise that I watched the return of Sherlock (by the way, what a brilliant way to ring in the New Year, well done BBC!) and am here to tell you to drop everything and watch it right away.

Some background - Sherlock is the modern-day retelling of Sherlock Holmes, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman playing Holmes and Watson. It is hilarious, sophisticated, and displays a complete understanding of these characters, so that even though the world they inhabit is far removed from Victorian England, you couldn't care less. There has never been more a more accurate depiction of Holmes and Watson than in this series, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would probably have to concede that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were was the only writers fit to carry on his legacy.

The first series lasted all of three episodes and was mindblowingly fantastic. Cumberbatch deserves an award just for the tongue-twisting dialogue that he has to utter on a regular basis. Freeman is perfect as the sensible Dr. Watson, newly returned from Afghanistan with a psychosomatic limp that Holmes quickly diagnoses. The modern-day setting is a revelation because it allows Watson to blog about his adventures with Sherlock, send him texts, discuss cases via Skype, and come up with all sorts of ways to keep Sherlock in the loop without needing him to leave 221B Baker Street for long. We were also introduced to Holmes's brother, Mycroft, his assistant (who may or may not be the future Mary Watson), the much put-upon landlady, Mrs. Hudson, and of course, consulting criminal and Holmes's arch nemesis, Jim Moriarty. Each one of these characters is a loving ode to the originals, with nice twists to keep them fresh and funny for the modern age.

The second series which premiered on New Year's Day is also only going to last three episodes. But these are 90-minute episodes, so really it's like watching a movie every week for three weeks. A very smart, impeccably crafted, Oscar-worthy movie. The first episode, "A Scandal in Belgravia," introduces Holmes' only romantic interest, Irene Adler. And what a worthy woman she is. Sparkling with wit, intelligence, and dominatrix charm, she plays Sherlock like a fiddle, giving him an endless array of puzzles to challenge and excite him. Lara Pulver is absolutely stunning and someone needs to give the woman a show of her own. As for the episode itself? Well. I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say it was utterly preposterous to see how brilliant it was. Moffat has fully outdone himself and this is only the first episode. Every minute counts and there are no wasted scenes, which you will find out as you hurtle towards the denouement. And as ever, it is wickedly funny with lashes of sarcasm, danger, and suspense. There are intricate mysteries that are solved with Holmes's trademark finesse and your jaw will hit the floor as you learn all the answers, which is probably how most people react when they read any Sherlock Holmes story.

Frankly, instead of watching Robert Downey Jr. punch people on the big screen, just buy the Sherlock DVD and indulge in quality entertainment. The next episode will be "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and I can't wait to see what Moffat and Gatiss's take is on this story. I've never been looking forward to a Sunday night more in my life. 

The Descendants: It's Not All Fun and Games in Hawaii

The first thing I did on New Year's Day was go see The Descendants. Believe me, it might be the best thing you do all year.

The story is about Matt King, a lawyer from Honolulu who is devastated when his wife Elizabeth is in a boating accident and rendered comatose. He has two daughters, 10-year old Scottie who has a smart mouth and exhibits some wildly inappropriate behavior and 17-year old Alex who has had issues with drinking and drugs and has been shipped off to boarding school. Matt is the self-described "back-up parent" and with his wife lying unresponsive in a hospital bed, he finds himself struggling to take control of the household and care for his daughters. Once he finds out that his wife is not going to make it and will be taken off life support according to the wishes stated in her living will, Matt has to start visiting friends and relatives to break the news and let them say their last goodbyes to Elizabeth.

Matt enlists Alex's help, telling her that he will need her to accompany him on some visits and or care of her sister when he's away visiting other people. At this point, Alex finally reveals why she and Elizabeth fought earlier that year. It turns out Elizabeth was having an affair, which Matt had absolutely no idea about. As you can imagine, he does not take the news well.

Adding to Matt's troubles is the fact that he is the sole trustee of his family's trust that stretches back several generations to his great-great-grandmother who was a Hawaiian princess. The trust owns a pristine piece of 25,000-acre property on the island of Kaua'i, which needs to be sold before it is lost due to laws against perpetuities. Matt has to deal with various cousins who need the money from the sale while the whole of Hawaii is eagerly following his family's decision on who to sell the property to. No one wants to see a Walmart built in the middle of that astonishingly beautiful area and the family is largely agreed upon selling it to a developer from Kaua'i, who knows the land and will be least likely to maim it. Unfortunately, Matt eventually learns something about this developer that might make him re-think the whole idea.

I know that nothing I've outlined so far sounds particularly funny and that is precisely what makes this movie so enchanting. It could easily have gone down the hard-luck sob-story road, but instead it takes the far more realistic path, where sorrow can be intertwined with humor and farce. Alex's incredibly dense friend Sid accompanies the family on their various road trips and provides much-needed comic relief with his stupid observations and strange ideas. Their attempts to stalk and confront the man that Elizabeth was having an affair with are hysterical and there are plenty of jokes amidst the very real tragedy that is enveloping this family. I heard plenty of sniffles in the audience and many people were blowing their noses in their handkerchiefs, but then two scenes later, they were laughing out loud as Sid did something ridiculous or Scottie said something insane.

Ultimately, the film is a masterclass in acting, with George Clooney imbuing Matt King with just the right amount of haplessness, strength, bewilderment, anger, and love. His one-sided dialogues with his comatose wife are simply stunning, going through emotions that you didn't even know humans could express. And Shailene Woodley is riveting as Alex, the foul-mouthed, alternately supportive and resentful daughter who is struggling with the awfulness of her mother's betrayal when there's nothing she can do about it now. Amara Miller is wonderful as the 10-year old Scottie who traipses through the movie with seemingly no idea that her mother is actually going to die until the very end in a scene that will break your heart.

Lest I forget, the whole story takes place in the jawdroppingly gorgeous setting of Hawaii with a lilting Hawaiian soundtrack to score the proceedings. But as Matt points out in the very beginning of the film, just because he lives in Hawaii, it doesn't mean he lives in Paradise. The entire film illustrates the point that people living in so-called Paradise are still subject to all the tragedies and woes of human life. A beautiful beach is little comfort when your wife is lying in the hospital and you are stalking her lover.

The Descendants is the kind of Oscar movie I absolutely love. A sad-funny story with some brilliantly realized characters and an ending that is just perfect. Clooney is definitely getting a Best Actor nomination for his role in this film and he has a solid chance of winning. And a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination is almost certainly coming their way. Interestingly, the movie was directed and co-written by Alexander Payne of Sideways fame, but one of the other co-writers is Jim Rash who plays the ridiculously over-the-top Dean Pelton on NBC's Community. I would happily vote for The Descendants to win Best Adapted Screenplay just to see Dean Pelton accept the award. So, bring on the nominations, and bring on the awards, because this is one of those must-see movies that make the bleak winter months feel like Paradise.

This is the property that Matt has to sell in the movie. Who wants to chip in and help me buy this place? We only need half a billion or so.