A Few Things

♦With reservations, I recommend Torchwood: Children of Earth, the BBC miniseries (technically a season of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood) that aired recently on BBC America and is available on iTunes. It’s a suspenseful and unusually pointed dramatization of some ethical quandaries, but despite many believable and affecting performances, is not so impressive in its development of character or in its actual exploration of the dilemmas it poses. Yet it’s quite refreshing to encounter science fiction focusing more on ideas than on action. Further, in part by leaving the agenda of the aliens mysterious until near the end of the narrative, the writers create a milieu of foreboding that is intense and yet murky. The more viscerally suspenseful elements, deriving mostly from violence, chases, surveillance, and the like, are achieved through conflict among the human characters; this was an interesting and in some ways satisfying approach. On the other hand, while the aliens were not made into cartoonish villains—they have clear motivations—they serve more as objects of fear than as agents with complex motives and experiences. Alien psychology is an inherently interesting topic and we don’t see it explored here.

♦I missed a couple episodes of Nurse Jackie but I caught Monday’s. I like the direction things seem to be taking: Jackie is experiencing greater difficulty negotiating her relationship issues, parenting role, and drug issues. I’m thinking, now, that it was important to show her intelligence, caring, and competence in the early episodes, so that the challenges she is facing now would seem consequential. She has something to lose.

♦The Dollhouse season one DVDs, of course, are out. I loved “Epitaph One” but I have reservations about it as well. That, however, will have to wait for later in the week.

Women Underrepresented Behind the Camera

Neda Ulaby provides details in a story for NPR.

Infinite Summer

A couple weeks late, I’ve joined in the daunting project being chronicled at Infinite Summer. More to come.

Jackie, Take Five

Jackie, Take Five
[Spoilers for this episode only]

This episode of Jackie was another strong one; again, it contained nothing particularly surprising or nuanced. Rather, one sensed some of the joy this profession offers when one can use it, as Jackie does here, to really help someone in need and to forge a personal connection with her in the process. In fact, part of what makes Jackie so effective—in contrast to the doctors around her, who are obviously also very knowledgeable and competent—is precisely that she communicates so well with patients—listening to them, showing interest in them, providing emotional support, and, when necessary, being tough with their family members, or even giving out her cell phone number. They trust her and one senses they will try to do as she asks. One sees this with the stroke patient and with Stephanie, the girl caring for her sick mother.

I do not think Akalitus is being developed well. She isn’t formidable enough and is too easily ridiculed. Also? Coop is not very interesting yet, although he’s had his moments. Momo and Thor are pretty engaging. Eddie, the lover and drug provider, is pretty good in his wacky, clueless warmth. O’Hara is wonderfully crazy in her overdone imperiousness.

Recommended: Writers’ Block

Ive started listening to KQED’s Writers’ Block podcast (also available on iTunes). It features authors reading stories, book excerpts, and other short works. The selections are quite good from what I’ve heard; a particularly refreshing aspect of this podcast is that unlike most similar programs, there is no host and no interview—just authors briefly discussing and then reading their work. This direct approach is very absorbing, I’ve found.

It’s That Time of Year

Ravi Somaiya talks with movie industry insiders about why so many big movies are rotten. “It’s a business.”

Jackie, Take Four

Note: Spoilers for this episode

I thought episode four was fine. It dealt with the death of a character it had bothered to humanize quite a bit, and this unblinking treatment was surprising and affecting. The drawing used to illustrate Jackie’s daughter’s anxiety was an effective device, made more so by the counterpoint of another child’s drawing at the end. Her effortlessly caring approach for a worried parent and her instruction to Zoey in this matter were also powerful (you really want someone like Jackie to care for you when you are in the hospital).

But somehow the episode fell rather flat, I thought. The half-hour time frame continues to work against the show: our investment in the characters depends on their change over time, but the events here seem so rushed and episode-bound that I am diverted more than intrigued by the latest crisis. The daughter’s problem could certainly provoke some interesting conflicts, but her time onscreen so far has been quite limited. Presumably that will change if this subplot is going to develop. The hint of conflict with her husband also seems like it could become interesting, but so far her juggling of her multiple relationships is so nearly seamless that it’s hard to care about this issue. The text messages from her lover that she gets while with her husband (one is afraid he’ll see them) suggest the conflict here may intensify. That would be good. Because for all the messiness of Jackie’s life, she is handling things too smoothly for dramatic purposes. Even a comedy, especially one with not much good comedy, needs emotional stories to tell.