Ultimate Case: Deadwood

Browsing Instant Watch, I’ve found that I have effectively strip-mined the notable works available. I don’t think I could muster much to say about, say, Bones, no matter how much Netflix insists, yes, insists it is along the parameters of my test preference paradigm. Along the way, some of my favorites came up. But three shows, three peerless shows, remained unmentioned. Before putting the project behind me, I’d like to discuss these three, shows which, to me, represent the height of the medium, the three to which I aspire in my own writing. The first, a Western so Revisionist the genre needs no more revising. David Milch’s Deadwood.

Compliment Case 10: Breaking Bad

Originally, I’d conceived of two Complimentary Cases for Weeds, to reflect its difficulty in balancing its moods—anything-goes hilarity, and cutting satire. My choices were It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia for the former, and The Riches for the latter. But that was before a show rocketed out of the sky like a meteor riding a lightning bolt and struck me dead between the eyes, despite having only watched the first, truncated season and the beginning of the second. It may be obvious, but the reply to Nancy Botwin is Walter White, and the compliment to Weeds can only be Breaking Bad.

Case 10: Weeds

Wacky comedy? Parental angst dramedy? Suburban satire? Crime fable? How much mileage  there in a yuppie widow slinging pot?

Compliment Case 9: Farscape

It’s sad that Doctor Who feels to special and fresh by doing exactly what sci-fi is supposed to—show us something amazing. But it’s true—space-travelling shows, when they do come around, try to be cool these days. Rip off Starcraft, but only the human backstory. Don’t do anything outlandish, just put the pretty young cast in flight gear for the promo shot. Sends the signal that we’re for grown-ups. But, you know what, I’m a grown-up, and I still want my alien freaks, dammit. I want crazy aliens with blue skin and 8 foot long tongues, but maybe they can be reformed terrorists, or have unreasonable expectations for their estranged, mixed heritage sons. And maybe they can have freaky alien sex. Thank God for Farscape.

Case 9: Doctor Who

One of the United Kingdom’s great contributions to pop culture, The Doctor is nothing less than a modern icon. Can this geek ur-text with a 40 year history win me over, or will I be compelled to ex-ter-minate ex-ter-minate EX-TER-MINATE! 

Committing, Anticipating Media, and 2011

A theme has been emerging in preparing this week’s posts of my further descent into bizarre, over-examined geekdom—commitment to an idea. A failure of half-assery is the worst failure of all, and if this page is to be a monument to the hyper-analytical self-aware journey through the pop components of my life, I’d better commit. So, in honor of the hero of this week’s YLT study, I will now pierce the veil of time, gaze back at two weeks ago predict the future. Games are easiest to anticipate--the only movies you hear about a year in advance are giant summer atrocities, TV is mid-season, and there's simply too much literature to worry about what's new or not. What games will I be thinking of when all the big guys are making their lists next year? Maybe I’m still in a list-making mood.

Compliment Case 8: Cowboy Bebop

Aeon Flux was one of the earliest American animated shows to wear its anime influence on its sleeve—fluidity, sexuality, mature themes, cyber-punk, bargain-basement philosophizing. Culture, though, is a two-way street. What does it look like when the Japanese take from us?