// Category Archive for: TV

Hannibal: Will Graham Vs. TV Tropes

By Lisa Anderson

Last Friday, faithful fans of NBC’s Hannibal were glued to the screen for the premiere of the show’s highly anticipated second season. The first season of producer Bryan Fuller’s take on the novels of Thomas Harris garnered critical praise and audience appreciation for everything from the masterful performances to the elaborate gourmet dishes prepared by the title character. One thing that stood out for me, however, was the way in which Will Graham, the protagonist and point-of-view character of the first season, undermines an increasingly common trope on television.

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House Of Cards: The Real Game is Being Played With The Audience

By Martin Hollis

Literature had it lucky. Good old Willie Shakespeare knocked out many a soliloquy in his time, not through choice, but necessity. Standing in the bare rooms of The Globe, it was a must for actors to explain in detail to the audience the location, color, and décor of the room, which had now become Denmark, Verona, wherever.

Given 500 years, it’s no surprise then that Nabokov, Danielewski, and even JJ Abrams in his authorial capacity, have all manipulated and played with the concept of the fourth wall, obfuscating, elaborating, or messing with readers’ expectations. Even Alan Moore’s Watchmen played with the fourth wall, using framing, captions, and font among others in order to play with the form.

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True Detective: “This place is like someone’s memory of a town, and the memory is fading”

By Luke Shaw

I’m increasingly wary of new TV recommendations, especially after the all that post-meth cook smoke was blown up so many collective asses that it got tiresome to even be involved in the show’s culture (Disclaimer: I like Breaking Bad but it isn’t the be all and end all of TV drama). It’s also because to even participate in conversations around that show without either being buffeted by so much screeching enthusiasm or labeled a disgruntled naysayer for having one bad word to say about any of its many elements was an absolute impossibility. So I tend to try and distance myself from the new stuff.

However, HBO have gone and put out something that piqued my intrigue so much that I just couldn’t stay away. So I am going to spend the next couple of hundred words blowing smoke up the collective asses of those of you who read this. I love the series format on TV, though I often regret the time investment, especially considering the way it’s frequently so reliant on commissioning and meeting episode quotas. It often feels like creators are wrestling with network and fan expectations and thus things pan out in uneven and bizarre ways. Sometimes this is good (it was great to see Jesse’s character evolved into a fuller role in Breaking Bad than showrunner Vince Gilligan had intended) and sometimes this is bad (cancellation of shows like Deadwood, shows being dragged on past their sell by date like The X-Files and many others). It’s an obstacle that few shows can guarantee that they can surmount.

True Detective is a familiar beast, but of different breeding. It has this prestigious idea of “authorship” behind it. It has a fixed writer with novelist Nic Pizzolatto and a fixed director in Cary Joji Fukunaga. It has brevity, with the first season being only eight episodes long, It has closure and finality; the show adheres to the anthology format so each season will be about a different scenario, with new faces, possible new locations. None of these are entirely new ideas, but the combination of all of these elements into one show is novel, to me at least. I may have missed a show; with millions of hours of TV it is entirely possible that I have, but that’s a task I can set myself later, with American Horror Story looking like an admirable starting point.

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Best Of 2013: Less Lee Moore

My goal for 2013 was to see 100 new (to me) movies, listen to 100 new albums, and read 100 books. I had to find time to eat, sleep, and bathe, so some of these goals were not accomplished. (Hint: the latter two.) I also watched quite a bit of TV, but not all the shows that I loved so fiercely in 2012. Part of this was availability; part of it was time. Without cable or a DVR, I’m reliant upon Canadian network websites for new shows. I did, however, get into Mad Men and get back into Supernatural, thanks to Netflix Canada, which is the second best pop culture item on my 2013. The first is the TV show that dominated everything else in 2013: Hannibal.

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Best of 2013: Julie Finley

This year has been awful . . . for me at least. Between agonizing pain that led to back surgery, as well as polycystic ovarian syndrome, it made it very hard for me to enjoy anything (with the exception of a few out of town excursions).

I watched more movies than usual, due to my combined illnesses, but not too many were new films. I actually only went to a movie theater once this year. As far as television shows go, there were only a few current shows I bothered with; most were re-runs (but I hadn’t watched originally, so it was like watching a brand new show).

Concerts were VERY few: The Hives (who were great; my review), and going to see Bill Burr do stand-up. I was supposed to see Adam Ant, but that was when my back injury was out of control, and I couldn’t attend, so those tickets went unused.

So with that said, here’s a list of media I enjoyed in 2013. There are no books listed, because even though I am cooped-up, I find no joy in reading!

Most of the music I listened to was old, but there were a few releases that came out this year that I really liked.

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Best Of 2013: Tim Murr

When I started thinking about how my best of list was going to look, I had four entries in mind. I kept putting off writing it though, because I still hadn’t seen Jessica Cameron’s Truth Or Dare, Lawrie Brewster’s Lord Of Tears, Richard Raaphorst’s Frankenstein’s Army, or heard the new Black Flag album. Well, the year is winding down and I must move on. No doubt I’ll blab at great length about them all later. So my list is short, but strong.

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Best Of 2013: Jeremy Fury, Jeremy and the Harlequins

I must confess, I had to read a few other “Best of 2013” lists to help recall what came out between January 1, 2013 and now. . . but here it goes.

The Limiñanas album, Costa Blanca, was highly underrated. Also underrated was Hunx and His Punx, Street Punk. Along with the rest of the world, I liked the new Arctic Monkeys record, AM, quite a bit and Bowie’s return with The Next Day.

I didn’t feel Haim’s entire record, Days Are Gone, as much as everyone else on Earth seemed to, but the song, “The Wire,” is amazing and extremely catchy. As far as film, the documentary Room 237 was great and so was, A Band Called Death.

Can we go into TV? I’m addicted to Portlandia and Season Three did not disappoint. Also, the final season of Eastbound & Down redeemed Seasons Two and Three.The finale was what all TV series finales should aspire to.

Lastly, Gravity was quite a ride. Right?

Jeremy and the Harlequins’ self-titled EP came out December 17.

Best Of 2013: Singer/Songwriter Lewis Watson

Photo © Alex Brown

Television:
Breaking Bad
Homeland

Music:
Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap
The 1975, The 1975
Half Moon Run, Dark Eyes
Matt Corby, Resolution EP

I’ve read a lot of the Sherlock Holmes books this year and started—finally—my vinyl collection.

Lewis Watson‘s latest EP, Some Songs With Some Friends, was released December 16 via Warner Music.

Best Of 2013: Paul Casey

2013 was a good year for my interests. Some of the greatest video games I have experienced all came in a bunch. R&B continued its resurgence with both new and legendary musicians, making this year one of the greatest in nearly a decade for human music. Rap has also reached a more interesting place than it has been in a long time with much of the dull-minded aversion to being smooth and beautiful wiped away. Now if you want to hit a nice melody on the chorus you can do it without the fear that you will be removed from the big-cock-I’m-in-a-street gang-and-will-literally-murder-you-and-your-family club. Even when it was aggressive or violent, this year it was from the Miike Takashi School of Creative Perversion.

On the television too, I had a wonderful time with the most original American show in the last decade ending its run on top. Yes, Eastbound & Down (probably) ended Kenny Power’s story as fearlessly as it began. This was not a big movie year for me and while I am sure there are a bunch that I will love when I get around to seeing them—Blue Jasmine, The Counsellor—nothing I have seen this year warrants a recommendation.

Games
Music: Albums
Music: Singles
Television
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Best of 2013: Jazz Guitarist Nir Felder

Photo © Phil Knott

Best meal: A toss up between Battersby in Brooklyn and Cal Pep in Barcelona.

Best coffee: Also a toss up: Courier Coffee or Barista, both in Portland, OR.

Best wine: A 1998 St. Emilion that Eric Harland brought to his birthday show at the Blue Note.

Best gig: Montreal Jazz Festival with Aaron Parks, Orlando LeFleming, and Mark Guiliana.

Best concert: Tie between St. Vincent and David Byrne at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA and a traditional flamenco group at Villa Rosa in Madrid.

Best album: Midlake’s Antiphon.

Best movie: I’m hooked on Michael Apted’s original English Up series.

Best purchase: A 1966 Fender Electric XII!

Best drive: After a gig in Vicksburg, MS I took a couple of days to drive up the old “Blues Highway” from Mississippi to Memphis, passing by Dockery Plantation, the legendary “Crossroads, and many of the unmarked places where the blues was born.

Best achievement: Finally finished reading Infinite Jest, which I started sometime in 2012. . .

Best opera: I had a blast playing with the NYC Opera in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole, in what ended up being NYC Opera’s final performance. A sad and moving occasion.

Best city: Athens, Greece. You can take a boat to any thousands of beautiful islands, you can study amazing ancient ruins, or you can just hang out and eat Greek food all day. I love it.

Nir Felder‘s next release, Golden Age, will be out on January 21, 2014 via OKeh.