Life has been a bit trying these last few weeks. While I always try to keep a positive attitude about the days ahead, there is one secret special weapon which keeps me grounded and enjoying life until those great days come - it's my DVD collection of the TV shows I have always loved.
With the ease of getting TV shows to DVD however, I came to realize there were some gems I sorely missed. One of my VERY favorite was "The Invisible Man" starring Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Shannon Kenny, Mike McCafferty and Eddie Jones. I was reminded of this when I saw Ventresca guest-star in the second episode of "In Plain Sight," a show I only force myself to watch because Paul Ben-Victor is in it.
Seeing Ventresca stirred memories of how much I loved "The Invisible Man" so naturally I thought I'd take a stroll through Google to see what he'd been up to since then. I didn't get as far as HULU. HULU appears to be a NBC networks web site which offers online streaming for many different TV shows. When I saw an episode of "The Invisible Man - Season 1" pop up in my search request, I almost...well, I'd have to censor that part so I won't finish that sentence. I spent the entire week drinking in every last episode of Season 1 and when that was done I went in search of Season 2, which I found online with a little luck.
"The Invisible Man" was one of those amazing shows where the cast had been blended together with the finest artistry. I can't tell you how in love I was with the complexity of Darien Fawkes. Vincent Ventresca did an amazing episode called "Brother's Keeper" in which he had to channel his brother Kevin's more gentle essence and as well as Darien's carefree, rebellious and angry evil sides. It was an episode so fulfilling, I had to drink it in twice back-to-back.
In the days that have passed since it first aired, I've become a bit of a body language freak. I watch an actor's eyes to see if they are able to be completely in character or if they are just reading their lines. I check their bodies for subtle clues about how committed they were to the scene. These new observations made me love Ventresca's work even more. Looking at it with fresh eyes, I was able to notice all the nuance (even though Ventresca said in an interview the speed in which television must be shot to keep on schedule left little time for him to really think through his lines in regards to how he would present them).
There was so very much to the relationship between Darien, Bobby Hobbes and The Keep. Certainly, this is what drew me to the show to begin with. Seeing it with wider eyes now makes the loss after two seasons even harder. I long to see Darien Fawkes again - a character who made significant changes in his life. He grew the way I hope all characters will when I start watching a new show. Bobby Hobbes remained the corner stone, the safety net throughout the series. It is why when I see a TV show Paul is in, I gravitate towards it (I loved "John of God" even though it seemed to be written by the perpetually stoned). Claire Keeply got to be so many different things, but most of all she was a smart, intelligent, independent woman who looked after these two boys. Watching each of these characters have an opportunity to explore their personalities outside the box was a treat and I crave so much more.
The word on the street is that Fox (or whoever owns the rights to "The Invisible Man") refuses to allow anyone to touch the material. To my dismay, I heard there will be a remake of the original "Invisible Man" movie, which looked nothing like the TV show I came to know and love. There is also a possibility Fox will try to remake the TV show a la "Battlestar Galactica," completely screwing up the premise, filling it with dark, hopeless dredge and bastardizing the characters to accommodate today's younger viewers.
My only bright spot on this recent journey through the world of Darien Fawkes is the knowledge that the cast is amenable to working together again on a different project since Fox has refused to allow any type of 2-hour movie or mini-series. One of I-MAN's fans is pursuing independent film. She is currently working with a writer for a treatment that will hopefully produce a script the cast will want to sink their teeth into. If you love Vincent, Paul, Shannon, Mike and Eddie the way I do you'll want to keep up on the news about this venture. You can find out more on the Shoom Zone Production Blog at the Shoom Zone web site.
Until that comes to fruition, you'll want to make sure you purchase the DVD set as DVD sales will determine whether Season 2 of "The Invisible Man" will ever be released. As for myself, I'm contemplating watching the series again and writing up reviews for the episode descriptions on TV.com as there don't appear to be many. I also have a tawdry little fan-fic piece rolling around in my head that is aching to see the light of day involving Darien and The Keep.
"The Invisible Man" deserved so much more than it's early demise. It is feeding me this summer when there are only about three or four shows airing that I care to even watch. I thank the powers that be for putting it up on HULU and giving me an opportunity to fall in love all over again.
This week a million hearts were broken when the sad news that "Moonlight" would be cancelled was announced by CBS. The announcement made no sense based on the Eye's reasoning. In a season when popular shows were abandoned by parts of their audience after the strike, "Moonlight" retained their fans. In the Friday night "death" slot, "Moonlight" continued to take it's main demographic week after week.
JustMick gathered the facts and made some incredible observations that can be read here .
It was a great post and I invite all "Moonlight" fans to take a peek at it. While there are always so many hidden factors in any given action, it would be hard to say which ones did the most damage. One thing we do know - "Moonlight" as of 4:33PM (ET) on May 17, 2008 does not have a home.
If you look at "Moonlight's" troubled history, the show has gone through more machinations than any network property before it. It's true, we did fall in love with one show - a dark, film noir look at a hero and heroine fated to be kept apart forever. The writers on the show, however, were much more talented than that single premise.
The "Moonlight" writing staff is an amazing collection of artists who understand what people consider to be the most valuable things about life on earth. In a sea of network clones, "Moonlight" dared to step away from the mold and look at the possibilities few of their brethren were strong enough to put to paper.
Imagine the standard Romeo and Juliet, a couple who's story was tragic yet beautiful. This appears to be the only story Hollywood has known how to write for decades. While this Shakespearean c.l.a.s.s.i.c was a beautiful look at the depths of love, it should have in no way become a signpost for the rest of all artistic expression.
You cannot know loss until you know how very good the best things about love and life are. The writers at "Moonlight" understood this and set their pens in a different direction - one people have been craving after years of the dulling thud heard on every show shaking in it's boots for fear of "jumping the shark." In a world where the U.S. economy is collapsing and the earth is fighting it's inhabitants for it's own survival through earthquakes, floods and tornadoes, unconditional love is the utmost lesson we as a people must learn.
Mick and Beth learned about unconditional love in their season ender. Their lesson combined with the dismissal of "Moonlight" broke a million hearts. The key thing to remember is you cannot break a heart which doesn't know how to love passionately. It is the passion for which it breaks. Perhaps someone at Warner Brothers knew this.
As a person who seeks to understand the spiritual (not religious) side of life, I hold a belief that if you have the intention to bring the very best into your life you will follow a path bringing you to just that. These paths are not often easy. They come with topsy-turvy twists which dance between the place where the journey launched and the finish line ends.
One has to wonder about the sequence of events between Warner Brothers and CBS. Could it be Joel Silver wanted the very best for "Moonlight" to begin with? The last four post-strike episodes of Season 1 were magnificent, even with all the staff changes. They went in the direction we were hoping and gave us so much more to look forward to. If a shakeup in the works behind the scenes was necessary to repel meddling network executives, perhaps this was the road Joel Silver had to take.
I believe in this show which said so very much and was recognized by so many passionate people. Yes, we hurt very badly when the news of "Moonlight's" cancellation was released prior to the CBS upfronts. Many more grieved after seeing the season's perfect ending. Lucky for us, we who cherish love, honor and loyalty have pulled our bootstraps up and are ready to take arms. We are ready to fight, we are ready to write, we are ready to call whoever we need. Joel Silver, we are told, is at this very moment working hard to find a home for "Moonlight." He hasn't given up hope and neither have we.
Leo Buscaglia once said, "To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. " I hope you will join us in risking all.
For more info visit:
MoonlightLine.com
Moonlight-united.com
MoonlightFans.com
Moonlight-Love.com
I watched "Private Practice" last night. About halfway through the episode I had a very bad reaction to one of the guest actors. I couldn't figure out why I had this immediate and firm dislike of him. The more I thought about it, the more it welled up inside me. The actor in question was David Sutcliffe.
David Sutcliffe, as an actor, is an incredibly good one. He has a relatively nice screen presence, a unique accent and he fit very nicely into the part he was playing as the partner to a deceased Police Officer who's wife was getting ready to give birth. I just couldn't figure out why he disturbed my viewing pleasure so much. It was like a breath of fresh air when he disappeared from the TV screen.
I had purchased my "Gilmore Girls" DVD set on the release date - Tuesday, November 13th, even though I made an earlier promise to boycott Seasons 6 and 7. As it happens sometimes though, a sufficient amount of time had passed since the last episode of "Gilmore Girls" and when I saw Season 6 on sale at Sam's Club, I grabbed it and put it on the shelf next to my Season 5 case. This lead to the Season 7 purchase.
I decided to watch the Season 7 set after prime time was over that Wednesday evening. It didn't take long for me to remember why I made the decision not to purchase the last two seasons. The more I watched, the more I remembered the feelings that resurfaced while I was watching "Private Practice." Chris was the anti-christ in the world of "Gilmore Girls." He not only symbolized Amy Palladino's evil, but the level of disregard the show had been left in after years of her writing the scripts with her husband.
Amy admits that the fan base seemed to love the pairing of Luke and Lorelai. Unfortunately, Amy is one of "those" writers. If you've ever embraced a TV Series from start to finish, there's a good chance you've run into one of them. They are writers who start with an iron-clad idea and get more than a little bent out of shape when the story veers off course. The emergence of Luke and Lorelai as a couple was not a good thing for control freak Amy Palladino; notorious for demanding her actors stick implicitly to the script.
Amy started with a story about a woman who raised a child by herself and if one were to draw conclusions from her interviews she fully expected to have her leading lady fall back in love with her wayward "baby daddy" and finally complete the family. Amy admitted she already had the very last "Gilmore Girls" scene written in her mind even though she and husband Daniel jumped ship at the end of Season 6. She made sure when she jumped, she exacted her revenge. She drove the stake deep into Luke's heart by having the always self-absorbed Lorelai run off and sleep with her ex-husband again and in the process left the Season 7 writers one heck of a mess to deal with.
To the writers of Season 7's credit, they did at least allow Rory to condemn her mother's actions.
Rory: You slept with dad?
Lorelai: Yeah, I did.
Rory: You slept with dad? Um, that's just, I can't believe you slept with dad! Is that why you and Luke broke up? Because you slept with dad?
Lorelai: No, honey, no. I, believe me, no. Um, Luke and I broke up before.
Rory: For how long? I mean it couldn't have been long because you and Luke have only been broken up for what, like 3 days?
Lorelai: Yeah, it was that night.
Rory: The night you and Luke broke up? Wow. So you just rushed right over there the minute you were free, huh?
Lorelai: Rory.
Rory: Sounds like you were in quite a hurry. Did you put a dummy in the passenger seat so you could use the carpool lane?
Rory's words were spoken as one who knew and understood real love (Logan) and could clearly identify that her mother Lorelai knew little to nothing at all about it. Real love leaves you so wounded that any one else's touch is repulsive; anyone else's touch is blasphemy.
Rory: You know what mom? If you're heartbroken, you rent "An Affair To Remember," you have a good cry and you drown your sorrows in a pint of ice cream. You get a hideously unflattering break-up hair cut - you don't sleep with dad.
Even though the writers tried to show compassion to an audience that knew better, it didn't help the rest of the season any. While Graham and Bledel had been signed through Season 7, it was clear Graham was over the whole scenario. I could tell by her body language the writing was on the wall. "Gilmore Girls" was one TV show I had no desire to join in the effort to save.
The Palladino's had an wonderful opportunity to show the world that people who are shallow and self-absorbed CAN grow into wonderful people any of us would be proud to know. Yet time and time again, they gave Lorelai the lowest common denominator. Lorelai loved herself and expected others to love her with the same dedication. She was the one that decided she and Luke should set a wedding date, even after knowing Luke wasn't the kind of guy to go rushing into things. Lorelai wanted what she wanted when she wanted it; not so unusual when you consider the ink and from whom's pen it flowed.
In Season 7, Lorelai not only slept with Christopher as she did the night she promised to help an unwilling Luke repaint his diner, but she allowed Christopher to marry her as well. This played havoc with the audience who were pro-Luke and Lorelai. Sure, later in the season she kicked Christopher to the curb after writing a letter to the court to inform them what type of man Luke Danes really was. All Chris did was ask her to bear more of his children (and we wonder why men call women something that rhymes with "witch").
At the end of this poorly constructed season, I could only say "good riddance" to this show I once loved. Why the writers didn't see the writing on the wall in time to make sure the last episode was a lasting tribute to the prior six seasons, I have no idea. Perhaps this was the ultimate revenge of Amy Palladino. We see nothing more than a short kiss between Luke and Lorelai at the end of Rory's farewell party. The series makes its final statement as Rory heads off to begin her own life (sans mom) and mother and daughter wind up saying their last lines over breakfast at Luke's.
Even after having to experience Season 7 again, I firmly resolve to keep these DVDs in my collection no matter how much hatred I feel towards them. I use them as a teaching tool for friends and acquaintances when I want to explain body language to them. I have always been a fan of body language. When I watch a show on TV I desire to know what thoughts are going on in a character's head. Some actors present a strong front - what you see on screen is completely what they want you to know about the character they are portraying. Some actors allow their personal lives to bleed in and the longer they stay on a series, the more they bleed.
If you watch Lauren Graham, you will notice her "reality" bleed. Her joy in being flirtatious is what propelled the Luke and Lorelai love story to the forefront. When it came time to deliver the goods she faltered against the honesty of Scott Patterson's Luke Danes. Scott's passion was pure and noticeably present. Lauren often held poses that looked like they were straight from a silent movie. It was rare when she let herself go enough to make it appear Lorelai had the same passion for Luke.
Compare any of Lauren Graham's scenes with David Sutcliffe. She had much less of a problem being physically intimate in a way that anyone who truly knows love would act with him. This is what hit me head-on when I saw David Sutcliffe's first stride into the frame of the "Private Practice" episode.
To many, "Gilmore Girls" will always be something they treasure. Some may even be hoping for a 2-hour movie event in the future. I say leave well enough alone. There is no place these characters can go that will erase the damage of the past. What's done is done. Some wounds DON'T heal with time.
