weekly (month so far for me) film viewing post

[murdermystery]

So, my screening log (in terms of note-taking) is actually an entire year behind now, but since I have this idea that once my two "fiction" books come out I'm going to actually write a "film book," I figure it'd be good discipline if I actually start doing this again, and with the minor resurgence here, hyg

Comments

[danschank]

justified: on a brighter note, this show is finding its stride. i'm only about halfway through the third season, but it's shaping up to be interesting and complex. when it began, justified had the opposite problem of walking dead, lots of good characters (boyd crowder especially)... not a particularly compelling atmosphere. the single-story-arc structure can dumb it down from time to time as well, but they seem to be moving away from it as the show finds an audience. timothy olyphant is a better actor than he was on deadwood - more suited to a classically "western" role than the revisionism of deadwood. there's an easy-breezy quality to justified that reminds me of the old westerns that mann, boetticher and co. used to make; the elmore leonard framework gives this extra support. season two has one of the most memorable pseudo-villains in recent memory and season three is making strikingly good use of the dude who played bubba in forrest gump!

the good wife: more and more, i'm coming to love this show. it has its faults - it's premised around an infidelity narrative that's not interesting from really any angle. in fact, the stories surrounding the main character (her love triangle, her interpersonal conflicts, her expertise) are usually the show's weakest link (despite juliana marguellis' decent performance). the real fun is on the sidelines, where we get to see alan cumming do a bitchier take on rahn emmanuel, or where kalinda gets to play philip marlowe and sleuth around, or where a variety of likeable guest stars are always showing up (amy sedaris, martha plimpton, michael j. fox, parker posey). finally, sharon lockhart, the all-business boss of the operation, is slowly becoming my favorite character on television over 5 feet tall (peter dinklage still takes the cake). her romance with the dude from office space is super endearing and always hilarious.

[glazomaniac]

i just downloaded all of justified. i'm-a give ti a whirl soon enough.

[danschank]

i'm all but certain you'll like it. especially season two onward. the first season is kinda hit or miss for a while.