Showing posts with label Deadwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Deadwood. Show all posts

Monday 29 July 2013

Visions


Whilst convalescing after another operation my mind has been relatively inactive er... thanks painkillerz!  I did however manage to watch some stuff in a very passive/pleaz distract me kind of way. I started watching the drama Hell On Wheels which I was hoping would be half as good as Deadwood. The period detail in the sets and costumes is incredible so it was a bit of a shame that they couldn't pay the same attention to the script. I finally had to stop watching it as they were using modern terms and language that were just too jarring. With Deadwood as the benchmark for any kind of ye olde American type of show there is a lot to live up to and Hell On Wheels just didn't cut it.

I watched The Art Of Punk-Black Flag-Art & Music which is a mini 22 minute documentary on Raymond Pettibon the logo and artwork illustrator for Black Flag the LA punk band.  It turns out his simple yet effective Black Flag logo is now the most popular tattoo design in America. Pettibon is a character and his hatred towards certain members of the band definitely endears him to viewers who may think Black Flag's music is a little naff ie. me for the most part. This is a totally recommended untold story of popular culture. There are apparently two more to come in this series, one on The Dead Kennedy's and the other on Crass. I look forward to those.

Raymond Pettibon was so punk he hated Black Flag

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Tony Soprano's Legacy




To put it simply Tony Soprano acted by James Gandolfini set the benchmark for characters in television drama. This in turn has had an incredible affect on the acting and drama that has followed since on the small screen. It's a funny turn of events that has led to the best acting now being on the telly and not in the movies. Me & the Mrs would watch Sopranos and say 'Can you believe this is not real?'  Tony had other characters surrounding him that were as brilliantly acted as he was. Carmella, Paulie, Christopher, Ralphy, Uncle Junior, Johnny Sac, Janice, Adrianna, Dr Melfi, Tony's mum etc. That's an incredible list of characters whose actors were so good that you believed they were real.

It was Tony's show though and his multidimensional and nuanced performance is monumental. Apart from making the Sopranos the classic that it is Gandolfini has raised the stakes so high that he has caused an unprecedented eruption of great character acting.

Walter in his Whites.
Music may have died in the new millennium so this late flowering of tv drama is perhaps how we'll remember the 00s and the 10s as the new golden age of tv drama. Who'd have ever thought that? We hardly watch tv like we used to. With our i-phones, i-pads, wiis, xboxs and computers up the wazoo does the telly even get turned on?  So this peak in tv drama has come at an odd and unstable time for tv. I'm sure downloads & dvd sales insure it occurring. In my home at least these series are consumed in seasons via the dvd. Last weekend the entire season 5 (part 1) of Breaking Bad was watched. That's 8 episodes. Right there you have some of nows greatest actors. Who can believe that Walter White is the same guy as the dad in Malcolm In The Middle? Then there's Jesse, Gus, Tuco, Hector etc. Without Tony Soprano would these characters have existed? Maybe he made writers and actors see the potential for the quality standards we could have. McNulty, Kimia, Bunk, Omar, Bubbles, Marlo, Prez, Snoop, Avon, Stringer Bell to list just a few of the unforgettable and incredibly acted characters from The Wire a show that followed in The Sopranos wake.  I didn't even realise two of these guys were actually posh British actors. This cast took The Sopranos mantle and possibly even surpassed it. They certainly equalled their standard as have others like the aforementioned Breaking Bad as well as Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire et al.



I guess Tony Soprano was a catalyst for premier acting and we all get to reap the benefits. David Fisher played by Michael C Hall in Six Feet Under is possibly my all time favourite but hang on what about Clare and Brenda from the same show? The list goes on...Nicky, Margene, Alby, Roman, Frank and Rhonda from Big Love.... Al Swearagen, Alma Garet, Trixie, Calamity Jane, Joanie Stubbs, The Doc, Charlie Utter, Mr Wu, EB Farnum are also all great characters beautifully acted in Deadwood... I can keep the lists coming.

The Sopranos and the shows that followed are going to be seen like late 60s LPs are seen by the likes of Rolling Stone and Mojo. These shows are going to be your Sgt Peppers, Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blondes  et al. They will perennially feature in the top 10s of all time, be endlessly discussed, have their order shuffled every few years and be revered as peaks of popular culture because they are.

Is The Sopranos The Sgt Pepper of telly?

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Breaking Bad

I've e just finished watching the DVDs of the fourth season of Breaking Bad and fuck me it did not disappoint. It kept me guessing right till the end with their great use of red herrings. Even after the final ep of season 4 I've still got unanswered questions and cannot see where the final 5th season will go. I'd like to write something really smart about the show but i dunno.....It's some of the greatest actoring ever acted. There are no week links in that cast. It's like the longest best movie ever made. The Mrs thinks each episode is like a mini movie and that Walt could in fact be a superhero. It is one of the most enthralling shows I've ever seen. An absolute peak in telly drama.
Unrecognisable as the dad
from Malcolm in the Middle
The creepiest psychopath
in tv history!
                                                                                                                                                                                

I also just watched the #3rd season again of Deadwood. That's another pinnacle of telly drama. I don't know how the fuck they came up with those characters. Each one a fully rounded fuck up of a person and so real.....well did anyone ever really talk like that?.... I dunno but I like it. It's like you're one of them, you really feel like you're sittin' in the Gem Saloon drinkin' whiskey or maybe I just wish I was. Anyway we are living through a golden era of TV drama. I hope it continues because well... have you seen a good movie lately? Didn't think so.
Complex moron.
E.B.

George Hearst.
A bit Grumpy


The Doc.