Wednesday Night Telly: UK vs. US
So nobody watched this week's Chuck or Heroes?
Tuesday night’s are (currently) Lost marathon nights with my neighbour, largely because there’s generally nothing else on in either country. Wednesdays are a different story, at least as far as the US is concerned:
BBC2 Trouble in Amish Paradise
This was one of those gem finds. You watch with no fore-knowledge or expectations and are delighted and moved. The Amish are inherently fascinating but this was no Witness-style loving tribute to their quaint charm. The documentary followed Ephraim Stoltzfus and his family who were excommunicated and shunned for challenging the accepted order over a matter of faith. The Amish are not allowed to read the Bible in English. They use the Bibles that were brought with the original settlers. They are in archaic German. There are few who can understand them. Ephraim believes that he should be allowed to study the Bible for which he must use an English translation and that the Amish rules have served as an obstacle to his ability to be closer to God. The schism is reminiscent of the Reformation. Instead of going off and starting their own life, Ephraim and his family stayed. They had no desire to throw off their culture. They continued to attend their church. They continued to spread the word both within and without the Amish community.
That story would be interesting enough but the real strength was how the makers let actual events mirror the complex theoretical debate. At one point, Ephraim’s brother was called before the bishops for judgement on whether he should be excommunicated for studying the English Bible. To prepare for the hearing, the brothers read the relevant passage in the Bible in English as they continued to defy the rule that they not understand. Amish rules demand that education is complete by the age of fourteen. Ephraim laughed as he struggled to look up the word “insurrection” and once he found it, could not see how it applied to the rebellion that he was leading. It was a heart-breaking moment for the observer. At every turn, there were similarly powerful punches that illustrated both the strength of Ephraim’s conviction and the strength of the Amish community. We were clearly put on Ephraim’s side but, like him, unable to condemn the community from which he came.
Channel 4 Grand Designs: The Zero-Carbon House
I think I’m over Grand Designs. The show’s been going for years and I’ve always enjoyed it but when you only pay attention to the first five minutes and the last ten, something’s off. For those who don’t know, Grand Designs follows an individual house-builder from start to (hopefully) finish. Over the course of the hour, one usually gets a good angle on both the family building their own house and the trials and tribulations involved.
This week, the couple concerned were an architect and a financial advisor who wanted to build a high-tech, eco-friendly, zero-carbon house in the country (Kent). As is scarily frequent on the show, the couple conceived and had a baby in the course of the build. Many have speculated that the show’s host, Kevin McCloud, would be an efficient and cheaper substitute for IVF treatments. The house was set below and around a massive parabolic arch of thin clay tile and plaster of Paris using medieval building techniques of timbrel vaulting. There are some pictures here.
Other than the collapse of part of the arch during the build, there was little to excite in this episode until the end. I’m usually most interested in the interior and this one was disappointingly minimal. Inside, many of the rooms were constructed as boxes. It was like having a load of PortoCabins stacked under a railway arch. The zinger was the news that they’d achieved what they set out to do - the householders will not only suffer no gas or electricity bills, they’ll be able to sell excess energy on.
ABC Lost 5.05: 316
Between those who read everything said by the creators and what’s happening onscreen, the path to the end seems more and more clear. This should result in a loss of interest from me. I want opportunities to speculate. I want to think the writers are going to try and surprise me. I also want everything to make sense in the end and the way it’s going, I don’t think it will for me. I don’t want to have spent six years on a dramatization of a glorified chicken/egg debate. Yet, I’m still engaged. Huh.
I’ve seen Alan Sepinwall describe this as a Jack-centric episode but I beg to differ. It wasn’t about Jack, it was just the linear tale of how the characters got from A (meeting Eloise Hawking) to B (returning to the island) from Jack’s perspective with a view to keeping back what happened to get Sayid, Kate and Hurley on that plane. We’re also left to speculate whether Ben’s “old friend” mission was to kill Penny and its outcome. For it to be Jack-centric, it would have had to tell us something new about Jack and it didn’t. On that point, Alan’s right for Jack has been onboard with the plan to return for some time.
That it was Jack’s point of view did, of course, generate afresh all the Jack-hate that seems to predominate amongst fans. I don’t share that emotion but it does amuse me. For example, Jack was pummelled for accepting Kate’s declaration that she would not return to the island if he asked her about Aaron. I very nearly responded on TWoP but given I’m on a warning already, I thought better of it. You, dear friends who have got this far, if any, are not immune from my sarcasm:
What reaction from Jack to Kate’s declaration would satisfy his harshest critics?
1. “No, Kate. I’d rather increase the chance that everyone on the island die by you not returning than not know where Aaron is. Now where’s my nephew?”
2. “No, Kate. I will beat you into submission of my will. You will return with me and you’ll get Aaron so he will come with us. Now, where’s my nephew?”
3. “No, Kate, please. I’m on my knees, begging you. Please tell me where Aaron is…No, I’m not implying that after three years of being his mother, you would have left him in the middle of the freeway - I know your priority will be his safety, but I have to know. Where’s my nephew?”
4. Something else.
5. Nothing. Ever. Jack is an ass whatever he does.
Number five is odds on favourite.
NBC Life 2.15: I Heart Mom
The release I saw was missing the teaser so I have to imagine that the visual image of the crime scene and accompanying soundtrack were as lovely as usual.
I love this show. With Lost, it’s all about getting the facts sorted out. With Life, the facts are almost peripheral. It’s the people that count - the main characters, the supporting characters, the guests - what they do, why they do it, and what impact it has on their lives. It’s all done with wit and humour. Up against anything else, it is always going to be the show that I most enjoy. Please, God, let NBC allow them to at least finish out the season.
Charlie Crews: Charlie may not have a boat, but he certainly has his fair share of reverie. He gives a picture of prison life that is gutting in its accuracy. He gets lost in his memories and needs Dani to bring him back. Then there were his words to Ian about killing someone. I need to be reminded. Charlie killed a prison guard, yes? I have to think that a death like that, even in self-defence, has a different effect than one caused in the line of duty, but perhaps not. Whether Charlie’s talking about the guard or about one of the people he’s had to gun down, the feelings are real. I think we already know that wherever the conspiracy leads him, Charlie is not going to be killing the man or men responsible for framing him. It’s not going to be because of Zen. It’s going to be because he knows what it means to kill and how doing so makes you lose your way. His experience of losing his way is far more powerful than his need for vengeance, whether he’s acknowledged that to himself or not.
Dani Reese: I was actually happy to see the emergence of the green-eyed monster. My problem with the Reese/Tidwell relationship is that it seemed so unbalanced - that he would die for her but that she’d have no problem walking away if it suited her. It was never such to make me dislike her. It was just a sign of how complicated and commitment-phobic she was. Now, she’s buying Tidwell suits and alert to his being in the company of other women. The question for me is whether she’s in it more deeply than she wants to be or whether she’s finally getting comfortable.
The Crews/Reese partnership: They don’t just look like a couple; they act like one in so many ways. It can be seen from the way they stand to the way they read each other to the way they scold or tease - “she gets touchy,” “you already asked him that.” It’s beautiful to watch.
Ted Early: Ted is such a loveable charmer to the audience that it’s so easy to forget that he indulged in the type of criminal activity that normally has a significant quantity and range of victims, cheated on his wife regularly, and perhaps deserves the very cold shoulder he got from his daughter. Her willingness to allow her project to self-destruct shows that the anger she feels is running very deep indeed. There are so many other ways she could have handled it. That she chose this way was telling.
Mickey Rayburn and the Conspiracy: We are meant to think he’s not dead, right? We were given a scene of Mickey ruthlessly manipulating Charlie for his own amusement so we are meant to believe that the bloody, deserted boat is another example of his playing dead. It was very convenient that it was immediately after he told Charlie “everything.” That leads me to think that Mickey is actually dead, perhaps by his own hand, in pursuance of some further planned manipulation. Being a big fan of Helen McCrory, I was delighted to meet Amanda Purier (spelling?). If she’s Mickey’s agent on earth, I am looking forward to seeing what develops.
Mary and William Ford: I want to assure Facts of Life viewers that Mary Ford’s “but I guess he was just a thieving prick” was just as shocking to those unfamiliar with the actress in a former role. It came out of nowhere and shocked and was very, very funny. That set the tone for the whole family for everything was unexpected and a little kooky - par for the course on this show of course. I squealed when the effete son of Mary I was expecting was the giant Tom from Lost. I laughed at Mama coming to the rescue with the cast of Sons of Anarchy. The case was so wonderfully twisted.
Did I mention that I love this show?
Tonight’s winner: Life
Score to date: UK 1, US 1.
Tuesday night’s are (currently) Lost marathon nights with my neighbour, largely because there’s generally nothing else on in either country. Wednesdays are a different story, at least as far as the US is concerned:
BBC2 Trouble in Amish Paradise
This was one of those gem finds. You watch with no fore-knowledge or expectations and are delighted and moved. The Amish are inherently fascinating but this was no Witness-style loving tribute to their quaint charm. The documentary followed Ephraim Stoltzfus and his family who were excommunicated and shunned for challenging the accepted order over a matter of faith. The Amish are not allowed to read the Bible in English. They use the Bibles that were brought with the original settlers. They are in archaic German. There are few who can understand them. Ephraim believes that he should be allowed to study the Bible for which he must use an English translation and that the Amish rules have served as an obstacle to his ability to be closer to God. The schism is reminiscent of the Reformation. Instead of going off and starting their own life, Ephraim and his family stayed. They had no desire to throw off their culture. They continued to attend their church. They continued to spread the word both within and without the Amish community.
That story would be interesting enough but the real strength was how the makers let actual events mirror the complex theoretical debate. At one point, Ephraim’s brother was called before the bishops for judgement on whether he should be excommunicated for studying the English Bible. To prepare for the hearing, the brothers read the relevant passage in the Bible in English as they continued to defy the rule that they not understand. Amish rules demand that education is complete by the age of fourteen. Ephraim laughed as he struggled to look up the word “insurrection” and once he found it, could not see how it applied to the rebellion that he was leading. It was a heart-breaking moment for the observer. At every turn, there were similarly powerful punches that illustrated both the strength of Ephraim’s conviction and the strength of the Amish community. We were clearly put on Ephraim’s side but, like him, unable to condemn the community from which he came.
Channel 4 Grand Designs: The Zero-Carbon House
I think I’m over Grand Designs. The show’s been going for years and I’ve always enjoyed it but when you only pay attention to the first five minutes and the last ten, something’s off. For those who don’t know, Grand Designs follows an individual house-builder from start to (hopefully) finish. Over the course of the hour, one usually gets a good angle on both the family building their own house and the trials and tribulations involved.
This week, the couple concerned were an architect and a financial advisor who wanted to build a high-tech, eco-friendly, zero-carbon house in the country (Kent). As is scarily frequent on the show, the couple conceived and had a baby in the course of the build. Many have speculated that the show’s host, Kevin McCloud, would be an efficient and cheaper substitute for IVF treatments. The house was set below and around a massive parabolic arch of thin clay tile and plaster of Paris using medieval building techniques of timbrel vaulting. There are some pictures here.
Other than the collapse of part of the arch during the build, there was little to excite in this episode until the end. I’m usually most interested in the interior and this one was disappointingly minimal. Inside, many of the rooms were constructed as boxes. It was like having a load of PortoCabins stacked under a railway arch. The zinger was the news that they’d achieved what they set out to do - the householders will not only suffer no gas or electricity bills, they’ll be able to sell excess energy on.
ABC Lost 5.05: 316
Between those who read everything said by the creators and what’s happening onscreen, the path to the end seems more and more clear. This should result in a loss of interest from me. I want opportunities to speculate. I want to think the writers are going to try and surprise me. I also want everything to make sense in the end and the way it’s going, I don’t think it will for me. I don’t want to have spent six years on a dramatization of a glorified chicken/egg debate. Yet, I’m still engaged. Huh.
I’ve seen Alan Sepinwall describe this as a Jack-centric episode but I beg to differ. It wasn’t about Jack, it was just the linear tale of how the characters got from A (meeting Eloise Hawking) to B (returning to the island) from Jack’s perspective with a view to keeping back what happened to get Sayid, Kate and Hurley on that plane. We’re also left to speculate whether Ben’s “old friend” mission was to kill Penny and its outcome. For it to be Jack-centric, it would have had to tell us something new about Jack and it didn’t. On that point, Alan’s right for Jack has been onboard with the plan to return for some time.
That it was Jack’s point of view did, of course, generate afresh all the Jack-hate that seems to predominate amongst fans. I don’t share that emotion but it does amuse me. For example, Jack was pummelled for accepting Kate’s declaration that she would not return to the island if he asked her about Aaron. I very nearly responded on TWoP but given I’m on a warning already, I thought better of it. You, dear friends who have got this far, if any, are not immune from my sarcasm:
What reaction from Jack to Kate’s declaration would satisfy his harshest critics?
1. “No, Kate. I’d rather increase the chance that everyone on the island die by you not returning than not know where Aaron is. Now where’s my nephew?”
2. “No, Kate. I will beat you into submission of my will. You will return with me and you’ll get Aaron so he will come with us. Now, where’s my nephew?”
3. “No, Kate, please. I’m on my knees, begging you. Please tell me where Aaron is…No, I’m not implying that after three years of being his mother, you would have left him in the middle of the freeway - I know your priority will be his safety, but I have to know. Where’s my nephew?”
4. Something else.
5. Nothing. Ever. Jack is an ass whatever he does.
Number five is odds on favourite.
NBC Life 2.15: I Heart Mom
The release I saw was missing the teaser so I have to imagine that the visual image of the crime scene and accompanying soundtrack were as lovely as usual.
I love this show. With Lost, it’s all about getting the facts sorted out. With Life, the facts are almost peripheral. It’s the people that count - the main characters, the supporting characters, the guests - what they do, why they do it, and what impact it has on their lives. It’s all done with wit and humour. Up against anything else, it is always going to be the show that I most enjoy. Please, God, let NBC allow them to at least finish out the season.
Charlie Crews: Charlie may not have a boat, but he certainly has his fair share of reverie. He gives a picture of prison life that is gutting in its accuracy. He gets lost in his memories and needs Dani to bring him back. Then there were his words to Ian about killing someone. I need to be reminded. Charlie killed a prison guard, yes? I have to think that a death like that, even in self-defence, has a different effect than one caused in the line of duty, but perhaps not. Whether Charlie’s talking about the guard or about one of the people he’s had to gun down, the feelings are real. I think we already know that wherever the conspiracy leads him, Charlie is not going to be killing the man or men responsible for framing him. It’s not going to be because of Zen. It’s going to be because he knows what it means to kill and how doing so makes you lose your way. His experience of losing his way is far more powerful than his need for vengeance, whether he’s acknowledged that to himself or not.
Dani Reese: I was actually happy to see the emergence of the green-eyed monster. My problem with the Reese/Tidwell relationship is that it seemed so unbalanced - that he would die for her but that she’d have no problem walking away if it suited her. It was never such to make me dislike her. It was just a sign of how complicated and commitment-phobic she was. Now, she’s buying Tidwell suits and alert to his being in the company of other women. The question for me is whether she’s in it more deeply than she wants to be or whether she’s finally getting comfortable.
The Crews/Reese partnership: They don’t just look like a couple; they act like one in so many ways. It can be seen from the way they stand to the way they read each other to the way they scold or tease - “she gets touchy,” “you already asked him that.” It’s beautiful to watch.
Ted Early: Ted is such a loveable charmer to the audience that it’s so easy to forget that he indulged in the type of criminal activity that normally has a significant quantity and range of victims, cheated on his wife regularly, and perhaps deserves the very cold shoulder he got from his daughter. Her willingness to allow her project to self-destruct shows that the anger she feels is running very deep indeed. There are so many other ways she could have handled it. That she chose this way was telling.
Mickey Rayburn and the Conspiracy: We are meant to think he’s not dead, right? We were given a scene of Mickey ruthlessly manipulating Charlie for his own amusement so we are meant to believe that the bloody, deserted boat is another example of his playing dead. It was very convenient that it was immediately after he told Charlie “everything.” That leads me to think that Mickey is actually dead, perhaps by his own hand, in pursuance of some further planned manipulation. Being a big fan of Helen McCrory, I was delighted to meet Amanda Purier (spelling?). If she’s Mickey’s agent on earth, I am looking forward to seeing what develops.
Mary and William Ford: I want to assure Facts of Life viewers that Mary Ford’s “but I guess he was just a thieving prick” was just as shocking to those unfamiliar with the actress in a former role. It came out of nowhere and shocked and was very, very funny. That set the tone for the whole family for everything was unexpected and a little kooky - par for the course on this show of course. I squealed when the effete son of Mary I was expecting was the giant Tom from Lost. I laughed at Mama coming to the rescue with the cast of Sons of Anarchy. The case was so wonderfully twisted.
Did I mention that I love this show?
Tonight’s winner: Life
Score to date: UK 1, US 1.