There have been a couple of times, watching some TV show or movie, when a piece of music suddenly appeared and the combination of images, emotions, lyrics and notes elevated whatever was going on. The use of “This Woman’s Work” in the film She’s Having a Baby is an example of how it can work brilliantly for dramatic effect.
I was thinking about that recently because I ran into an example this week that fires on all cylinders… in a video game, of all places.
I’ve heard the song “No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage the Elephant, and it’s okay. It’s fun, even. But pair it up with the pseudo-cell-shaded, dark-humored goodness of the sci-fi RPG shooter Borderlands and you’ve got a toe-tapping intro that revels in its own bad-assery.
If you’re the type of person who would enjoy a sci-fi RPG shooter, I defy you to watch that and not want to play this. It’s damn near perfect in setting up the visual and emotional tone of the game.
This isn’t a post about “Leverage” per se, despite the photo. (The show is amusing enough, and definitely worth checking out.) I just noticed last week that Netflix offers instant streaming for episodes of the show from season 2. As in, the season that is currently airing Wednesday nights. Each episode apparently becomes available for streaming the day after appearing on TV.
Oh, and the episodes are in HD.
That makes Netflix, in my mind, the best thing out there since sandwich bread started coming in packages already cut up. It also brings to mind two questions, and I’ll rely on you for answers:
Are there any other series that Netflix is offering this way?
Are the cable companies crapping their pants? Seriously, if I hadn’t already scaled back my cable to the lowest of the low packages, this sort of thing would have pushed me over the edge.
Honest, the first show that went through my mind as Pushing Daisies got around to explaining its premise wasn’t Dead Like Me (creator Bryan Fuller’s other death-obsessed comedy-thing), but rather the first episode of Torchwood. In that show, a murder victim is brought back to life for less than a minute in order to find out who did the deed. In this show, murder victims are brought back to life for less than a minute in order to find out who did the deed, for fun and profit.
Pushing Daisies has been at the top of most best-of lists for this season, and it’s easy to see why. It looks like nothing else on TV. It sounds like nothing else on TV. Director Barry Sonnenfeld lets out his inner Tim Burton in a way he wasn’t allowed to in last year’s mid-season comedy Notes from the Underbelly.
The cast is pitch-perfect, with supporting player Chi McBride getting the best line (”Bitch, I was in proximity”) of the night. It’s funny, touching, and deserves to be watched.
Which is, frankly, why I’m worried about its future. It managed to narrowly win its time slot, which is a good sign, but whether audiences will stick with something this quirky remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’ve got to thank ABC for bringing us stuff like Twin Peaks back in the day and this show now. It’s a ratings risk, but one I’m glad they took.
Speaking of Peaks, I finally managed to catch the first two episodes of Reaper. (The common element is, of course, actor Ray Wise, far right.) This is the other show of the new season that has been topping best-of lists, and again with good reason. It’s funnier and more human than that other slacker-centric sci-fi show, and it’s got a lot of places it can go. Expand the current circle of friends for the lead, kill or maim one or more of the current ones, and you’ve got a perfect Buffy replacement.
Meet Chuck. He’s got a new show on NBC this season.
It’s a comedy, sort of. It’s an actioner, sort of. It stradles a lot of lines, some of them better than others. (The stradling, not the lines.)
Chuck is an average geek, and this show revels in its geek cred. Look, he plays “Gears of War”! Look, he understands technology! Look, he looks at porn! The last one is actually an important plot point.
The show is generally breezy, but then gets all dark and heavy before getting back to breezy. It feels more “True Lies” than “Spies Like Us,” but that’s a good thing. The acting is mostly adequate to the task, with the exception of the extremely pretty and improbably named Yvonne Strzechowski – who, as female lead “Sarah Walker,” has all the physical presence of Jennifer Gardner’s Sydney Bristow with about half the acting ability. Here’s hoping that gets better.
Definitely worth checking out. If you missed the pilot, I’m sure it’s available online somewhere.
I hate “Grease.” Oh, wait, that’s not what this is about.
Everyone knows that television in the summertime is the dumping ground for cheap-to-produce crap. But this year, between “So You Think You Can Merengue” and “So You ‘Celebrities’ Think You Can Merengue,” we’ve got “Burn Notice.” Essentially, it’s “The Equalizer” for people too young to know who Edward Woodward is.
It’s not a perfect show, but it does have Bruce Campbell in it. At times, it’s readily apparent that it has been scripted by a computer (mother and rebelious teen daughter are in danger, and hidden away in a safe house… what are the chances that before the end of act 2, the daughter will sneak out and find herself in trouble), but it takes place in Miami and features a lot of beautiful scenery. By beautiful scenery, I mean bikinis.
It’s not perfect, but it’s better than we usually get in the summer. So watch it, unless you’re out enjoying the weather or something.
Okay, so 
Honest, the first show that went through my mind as 
Speaking of Peaks, I finally managed to catch the first two episodes of 
Meet Chuck. He’s got a new show on NBC this season.
Everyone knows that television in the summertime is the dumping ground for cheap-to-produce crap. But this year, between “So You Think You Can Merengue” and “So You ‘Celebrities’ Think You Can Merengue,” we’ve got “