My Bloody Winter Vacation

[urbeatle]

I've been commenting in other people's journals lately, but not posting much. I'd better do something to remedy that.

I've been on an odd kick lately, reading a lot of crime stuff. It all started with seeing No Country For Old Men, which was great and deep, without being obnoxiously deep. This lead to reading up on various killers, like Zodiac and

Comments

[majorzed]

Life on Mars sounds intriguing. Maybe I'll look for it.
Did you see the premiere of Breaking Bad? I'm hooked.

[sunburn]

Life on Mars is quite intriguing! It's also getting an American treatment (Colm Meaney as Gene Hunt-- awesome!) although the producer is David E. Kelley, so chances are A) it'll be in Boston and B) it'll be topical and irrational at the same time. Furthermore, an 1980's-set cop-show spinoff of Life on Mars is filming in the UK, with at least part of the original LoM cast (including Philip Glenister aka Gene Hunt). John Simm (Sam Tyler) also appeared in excellent, nearly over-the-top form in the final 3*-part story in the latest season of Dr. Who.

SSC: I haven't actually watched the last episode of Life on Mars all the way through-- I just don't want the show to end, nor the ambiguity of Sam's
condition/position to be resolved.

*well, episode 11 is a stand-alone but its ending propels the events of the two-parter 12 and 13, the last episodes of the season.

[mmcirvin]

I've seen the last episode of Life on Mars--rest assured that it doesn't answer all the questions and wrap up everything neatly with a bow, though there's about as emotionally satisfying a conclusion as could be expected.

I actually never watched the second half of the Doctor Who season-ending two-parter; I'd read so many people complaining about it (and spoiling plot details that didn't appeal to me) that it actually sounded unpleasant. I saw the Christmas special, though, which was mediocre and made me wonder if the estate of Douglas Adams was going to be after them. The high points of S3 were fantastic; I hope they can recapture some of that.

[sunburn]

Here's a trivium you'll appreciate, from the wikipedia article about LoM:

The programme's central character was originally to have been called "Sam Williams", but Kudos felt that this was not striking enough and asked [series co-creator Matthew] Graham to come up with an alternative surname. (This would later be referenced in the final episode of series two.) Asking his young daughter for her opinion, she suggested "Sam Tyler", which became the character's name. Graham subsequently discovered that his daughter had named him after Rose Tyler from Doctor Who, a programme for which he would later write an episode.

[sunburn]

If you're on a true-crime kick, may I recommend "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" by David Simon? Simon was a Baltimore Sun reporter who took a year off to ride with the Homicide squad of the Balitmore PD, and the book was made into NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Streets." (Basically the book fed the plots of the first two seasons or so.) Simon is also the guy who created The Wire, and has a new one coming soon called The Paper, which is set at the Baltimore Sun. As for his writing, he also spent a year covering a single streetcorner where drugs were sold, interviewing buyers, sellers, neighbors, and so on. That became the book (and later miniseries, which I haven't seen), "The Corner."

I find him to be a very good writer, and H:AYotKS painted a picture of Baltimore that seemed a lot closer to my own experience than, say, the John Waters canon.

[mmcirvin]

"The Wire" seems to be touted by every policy wonk with a blog as the greatest show in television history (though some of them object to what they see as a thoroughgoing pessimism that actually outstrips reality). I haven't seen it, though.

[sunburn]

I literally just began to watch it-- saw the first episode last night. With the exception of much more steady camera-work, it replicates the look of early Homicide, including loads of interesting characters which, for the brief introduction they get, add some nice dimension to be filled in later. It's without a doubt the most unglamorous cop show ever written, with set in a department office that makes Gene Hunt's Manchester and Salford Police CID look like CSI:Miami. It also drops you right into the lives of the characters-- nobody's starting anything or finishing anything as we join the show. I recommend a rental.

As for the bloggers-- policy wonks aren't the only people who tout the show, but I can definitely see why it would appeal to policy wonks.

[horroraugogo]

I just thought about two books you might like...or not; Shot Thru The Heart by Mikal Gilmore( who became a writer for Rolling Stone), about his family,himself, and his brother Gary Gilmore. The other book being My Dark Places by James Ellroy.