Liars and Saints

I promise this will be my final "Good Wife" post. I watched most of Season Five--the fabled season, the one where "Good Wife" regained its momentum--and I agree with the world that "The Last Call" is a special hour. Basically, Season Five chugs along like a freight train, and it reaches maximum speed shortly after Will's death--and then the train slows down a bit (and then, in Seasons Six and Seven, the train just melts into a puddle of mush). The brilliant thing about "The Last Call" is its subversive approach to death. The writers take time to imagine, in depth, what a "day after" would resemble for each of the major characters, and the many smart decisions are surprising and memorable: *Eli, political genius, marches right toward his next speech. He forgets that the teleprompter is not his friend, so he finds himself cracking jokes about "my nervous husband" and "the man I spend my bed with." *Kalinda, beloved...

 Midway through the love affair of George and Martha, George asks if Martha will accompany him to a scary movie. (It's my impression that James Marshall liked scary movies. The "Tunnel of Love" sequence--in "The Amusement Park"--seems to tip a hat to Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train.") Martha is nervous, but George just ignores the concern. The two choose to see Vincent Creepo in "The Mummy's Toe." (One ticket costs five cents.) Of course, during the actual screening, it's *Martha* who has fun (while a frightened George pretends to look for his glasses under a seat cushion....Uncharitably, Martha speaks up: "You don't WEAR glasses....") The butt in the air, the fragile popcorn kernel in the giant hippo-fist, the wide-eyed scaredy-dog in the background: This is art. I'd very much like to be with Martha, viewing Vincent Creepo, out and about in the world again.

 My arch-nemesis is Glen Weldon, a culture reporter for NPR. I have never met this person, but I listen to his work for "Pop Culture Happy Hour," and I have issues. Basically, everything in Glen Weldon's work is a thing that I find somewhat grating in my own work; it's just that Glen Weldon is much more successful and prolific than I am. At times, Weldon seems to deliver an (unconscious) parody of NPR's general political-correctness overdrive. For example, if I remember correctly, he worried that the "Lion King" remake (the one with Billy Eichner) employed very few African actors (only African-American actors). I'm not saying it's *wrong* to wring one's hands about this; I'm just saying the act of wringing hands in that moment was so very NPR ....And to *not* insert a prelude: "I realize what I'm about to say will verge on self-parody...." This seemed striking to me. Also, Glen Weldon worried that the new movie "Superno...

 In its second hour, "It's a Sin" becomes dazzling. One way to understand Davies's work is through the lens of dramatic irony. This term refers to any moment when we know things the characters do not know. ("Mad Men" was also a major factory for dramatic irony.)  So--for example--we see one character rejecting another's blow-job offer when London enters the picture. ("You're from London? That's dangerous...." As if HIV would not have traveled to smaller towns.) The scene becomes odder still when the London boy makes a bold claim: "HIV is only in New York. People from London are fine." In another corner of Davies's world, a young woman struggles to help a friend with HIV. Should she shatter the mug this friend was drinking from? Should she wrap the mug's shards in a towel -- and bury the towel? Should she always be wearing rubber gloves? You feel the sense of panic when the friend's sister visits: She cannot begin t...

 It's clear to me that Jerry Pinkney often thinks about mercy. Pinkney's great triumph--"The Lion and the Mouse"--has a powerful lion showing mercy to a tiny irritant. The lion could crush the mouse, but instead sets the mouse free. (Pinkney suggests that it's this act--as least as much as the mouse's later craftiness--that inspired him, and moved him to complete a re-telling.) In a later volume, a sort of companion piece, Pinkney re-tells the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants. My understanding is that some versions of this piece have a sour ending. The ants have toiled all year, and the grasshopper has goofed off. In winter, the ants will not make room for the grasshopper in a warm den. Let the grasshopper reap what he has sewn! Pinkney rejects this ending and has the queen ant invite the nervous grasshopper for tea. It's an extraordinary moment, because the ant doesn't explicitly state that she is saving the grasshopper's life. And she doesn...

 "It's a Sin" is the work of Russell T. Davies, who also wrote "A Very English Scandal," one of my favorite TV "efforts" in recent years. Marc and I are only one hour into "It's a Sin"--but it's worthwhile, so far. This is the story of three intersecting journeys--three gay men in their late teens, in England, in the early eighties. The flashiest guy is an aspiring actor; his move from a remote island to London involves many hours of new and interesting sexual situations, and his major professional ambitions also seem to become a main theme. Another guy, Roscoe, is in danger of being forced to move to Nigeria with his father; this move would presumably force an "inner conversion" from homosexuality to a more-conventional path. Roscoe rebels via drag; he also finds himself in London. The third, the one I like best, is a somewhat repressed tailor's-apprentice (?) in a shop--who lies to his parents about colorful nights out...

After "Weekend with Wendell," Kevin Henkes returned with a *second* mouse masterpiece. This one seems to tip a hat--boldly--to Beverly Cleary. Cleary wrote "Ramona the Brave"; Henkes wrote "Sheila Rae, the Brave." And, indeed, Sheila Rae has courage. She enjoys studying lightning during a storm, and she dares to giggle when the principal walks by. She imagines that her maraschino cherries are the eyes of dead bears (and she eats five). The biggest transgression: Sheila Rae announces she will walk him by a NEW UNAUTHORIZED ROUTE. (You really travel back to childhood here. Sheila Rae shivers with excitement as she "crosses streets" and "turns corners." Oh, to derive a thrill from having crossed a new street!) Of course, Sheila Rae doesn't really know herself, and her story takes a shocking turn. But Sheila Rae's sister comes to the rescue-- Friends can embolden each other --and all ends well. Big sis and little sis walk into their...