This week will be a busy one – I’m seeing The Shape of Water, which I’m really looking forward to based on all the buzz surrounding it and because I love Del Toro. I’m also figuring out my Star Wars: The Last Jedi plans. Some places near me be will be showing the latter Thursday night, which I prefer to the massive presses of people in theaters on weekends.
Also, Xmas stuff, like wrapping and mailing presents, and non-Xmas stuff, working on my novel draft and some other writing projects.
Here is the International Trailer for Black Panther, which got me all het up this morning.
I feel bad for laughing at the narration at the end, but I did. My friend, who speaks a little Japanese, wrote it out as BU RA KU PANSA.
Not much in the way of a long entry today, but here are some little bits!
John Wick 2 – I wasn’t going to say anything, but I am pregnant with this movie’s offspring. At least one week. But seriously, it was MAGNIFICENT and you should see it. The movies are intended to be a trilogy, so this one is a bit of a bridge, but it still is AWESOME. Loved it from start to finish.
Life Stuff – Going well! Cooking, writing, peopling, and in my downtime I’ve picked up playing Skyrim again. The memories! The memes! The hilarious moments! I had completely forgotten how unprepared for fighting giants I was!
Fewds – I did my taxes*, got my tax return, and got a new (but irregular) All-Clad 12-inch skillet from Cookware and More and a mandoline slicer. I already have used the skillet a few times and it is MAGIC!
Politics – *drinking sounds*
Please enjoy this thing, which I saw years ago and forgot it existed until I was reminded the other day. I love rediscovering old things! It’s like rummaging in your attic and finding old treasures! NOTE: this video is totally fake and was created in a studio with greenscreens. No cats were thrown out of planes in the making of this video. Their little back paws floating in the air like ^V^ make me laugh very hard, though.
“Whatever.” ~ Skydiving cats, probably.
*Being an unmarried, childless, landless peasant with no side hustle means my taxes are wonderfully simple. I do them on Turbotax every year!
I fully recognize that Mr. Fleshler is not the characters he portrays, and as an artist has a wide range, bags of charisma, and probably a very vivid imagination. I expect he is also highly professional. I am also confident that were I ever to meet him in real life I would go through a 5-minute decompression thought process of “GGRAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” before I could have a normal conversation with him. I wonder if this is something he and other brilliant character actors get all the time?
“Character actors! Who gives a f*ck if we’re fat?” – Patton Oswalt, quoting Brian Dennehy
*Spoilers for True Detective, Season 1; Hannibal, Season 3*
(This post will contain some pretty dark content – trigger warning for entertainment that involves harming children and mentally handicapped people – Proceed with caution!)
Forgive my hyperbole, but character actors must be some of the most patient, most compassionate people on the planet.
I say that because last year, I watched HBO’s amazing inaugural season of True Detective. It is magnificent, incredible, it’s filmmaking greatness, from the production value to the performances to the characterizations. It’s just the bees’ knees and the kitten’s britches, and it is ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR EVERYONE because of the disturbing content. Seriously, I was disturbed for weeks after I shotgunned it over a period of 3 days.
One thing I couldn’t get out of my head was character actor Glenn Fleshler’s portrayal of the villain.
Just a Deeply Troubled Man Painting a School
There’s a moment when the TD villain, a back-country inbred janitor with a scarred face, unusual size and strength, and a penchant for molesting and murdering little girls, relaxes at home. He watches some TV, which he responds to in a variety of voices (Fleshler’s voice has an amazing range and ability to mimic), then he has sex with his possibly mentally handicapped sister-wife, while still doing the voices.
So That Happened…
As you can imagine, this totally put me in the mood for a July 4th barbecue where I would be surrounded by my (now ex) boyfriend’s coworkers, most of whom we didn’t know and whom I realized I had nothing in common with after trying to chat with them for over two hours. I was ready to party, and by party I mean have some kind of existential nervous breakdown.
SERIOUSLY I AM FINE NICE TO MEET YOU WHERE THAT BEER AT LET US PARTY!!!!!!
Anyway, I’m all right now and going to pick up the Season 1 DVD soon and watch it again since I am mentally more prepared. I haven’t watched Season 2 yet since I don’t have HBO but I’m curious if it’ll cause the same kind of spiritual collapse as the first season. Time will tell!
I just need to take my hat off to Mr. Fleshler’s performance. I did start to wonder what it must be like to be an actor pursuing your dream in a nontraditional career full of gambles, where you get contacted about a part and find out it’s this sort of thing.
A friend of mine is a talent coordinator for a voice talent agency and I asked her about that the other day at a party. She said they try to handle it very professionally, even a little obtusely.
The Correct Way to Handle It:
“Hi! We have a part we think you’d be interested in. It’s very out there and we think you’re creative and talented enough to make it work. Interested?”
The Incorrect Way to Handle It:
We have this part we think you would be perfect for, we need someone deeply offputting to play a child molester who ritually murders his victims, is into incest in a big sloppy way, and will make the viewer lose all faith in humanity. Nothing about this guy is human and he should give everyone the willies, if not make them want to burn their television set with cleansing fire. Interested?
I fully recognize that Mr. Fleshler is not the characters he portrays, and as an artist has a wide range, bags of charisma, and probably a very vivid imagination. I expect he is also highly professional. I am also confident that were I ever to meet him in real life I would go through a 5-minute decompression thought process of “GGRAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” before I could have a normal conversation with him. I wonder if this is something he and other brilliant character actors get all the time?
Mr. Fleshler is currently playing the character of Cordelle on season 3 of Hannibal, acting as Mason Verger’s caregiver. I cannot think of a more perfect role for him.I recognized the voice before the face, and by “recognized” I mean “fell into terrified crisis.”
I cannot wait to see what else the future holds for him and I wish him all the best with his career! He will certainly go far!
I love Orange is the New Black. Unflinching without being obnoxious, it was brave and awesome and it took a huge risk and totally paid off. It brought Laverne Cox onto the world stage, and started a lot of intelligent conversations about race and how people of color are portrayed in the media. It was AWESOME. And to compare apples and oranges, I am comparing it to HBO’s brilliant prison show OZ.
Welcome to Apples and Oranges! This is a new feature I’m trying out where I compare incomparable things only because of a thin thread connecting them.
[Some spoilers, but I haven’t finished the 3rd OITNB season yet so please avoid spoilers in the comments!]
Ain’t no party like a Litchfield party! Also this is clearly from season 2.
I love Orange is the New Black. Unflinching without being obnoxious, it was brave and awesome and it took a huge risk and totally paid off. It brought Laverne Cox onto the world stage, and started a lot of intelligent conversations about race and how people of color are portrayed in the media. It was AWESOME. And to compare apples and oranges, I am comparing it to HBO’s brilliant prison show OZ.
OZ was literally what gave HBO its middle name of “god damn this is some fine television right here.” It began airing in 1997 – almost twenty years ago! – and depicted the lives of inmates and staff at the fictional Oswald State Correctional Facility. It contains many alumni of other HBO shows, particularly The Wire. OITNB is similiar in a lot of ways, although WAY less brutal.
I admit it’s unfair to compare the shows because OITNB takes place in a prison, and OZ takes place in a max facility. Basically, it’s the prison where you go if you don’t behave in regular prison and they get tired of your shit. Please also note that I am not going to try and make some grand point about the difference between men’s and women’s prisons, because that would be asinine; these are fictional products inspired by reality, but do not function as examples of such.
In OITNB, people get their feelings hurt and sometimes get beaten up, or even beaten to death.
In OZ, they got their faces caved in or fed ground glass until they bleed out.
So, you know, different playing field, different rules.
Oz’s legacy is so ubiquitous its title sequence was lampooned on the Venture Bros, which is a major benchmark of pop culture– sort of like being parodied by Weird Al.
AND when Homer went to jail on the Simpsons, his little hat was a nod to Simon Adebisi’s own ever-present accessory. THAT Is a whole other level of pop-culture achievement!
Requirement of Being Cocked at A Sassy Angle: Check!
And the original in all it’s glory:
Granted it’s a little bigger, but it’s ALL in the angle. Also if you find this picture frightening, you should; Adebisi is not a nice man.
That photo accurately depicts the real Simon Adebisi; he’s a handsome, highly intelligent man played to the hilt by the magnificent Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje, but my GOSH was Adebisi a great villain. On the show, almost every character, no matter how brutal, was given some kind of humanizing moment that allowed another facet of their personality to shine through. My memories of the show are hazy but I don’t recall Adebisi ever having that moment (although dropping his pants and fiddling with his bits during his physical was hilarious, and apparently the actor’s improvisation).
One thing that OZ did so much better than OITNB was letting the viewer pick their narrative; for white, middle-class viewers like me, the story of Tobias Beecher heading to prison after drunken vehicular manslaughter was our window to this world. But the beauty of the show was how it drew us into those other windows as they opened wider and wider, providing other characters – Alvarez, Augustus, Poet, Kareem Said, Wangler, a forum for their stories.
I will totally admit that the premise of the first season of OITNB, of a ‘good girl’ going to prison, was what drew me in. That and curiosity about what women’s prison might be like, especially since I’m too lazy to go read about it myself. And naturally at the base of such curiosity is the self-absorbed First Wonder of the First World, Could I make it on the inside? Piper’s story was the main narrative, and that got me watching. But you know what? By about midway through the second season I was absolutely done caring about Piper because the characters around her were so much more compelling and had eclipsed her. At this point, everyone else in the prison is more interesting to watch.
So when season 3 began with her reunion with Alex and the selfish thing she did to achieve that, I sort of stopped giving a shit. Now obviously I have a lot more of this season to get through and since it’s OITNB, shit will go down and things will happen, but I’ll be honest, every time Piper is onscreen my mind starts wandering. She doesn’t seem to be growing as a character and her emotional gurning is so infuriating. When Red tells her to get in touch with her inner Russian and she immediately puts that into practice by pretending to ignore Alex and then having hatesex with her, I threw my hands up into the air because I just didn’t care. And then Alex forgave her! I get that they’re stuck inside and have to make the best of it; I suppose the one character’s (can’t find her name, sorry!) monologue about how prison is a band-aid and nobody who’re friends on the inside can sustain their relationships outside comes into play here, or will later in the season.
I wouldn’t mind if the story wandered away from Piper and her boring entitled bullshit to focus on more worthy characters. I know that Taylor Schilling is doing her best with her performance, and the show has certainly pulled back from her narrative, but I wouldn’t mind if it left her even farther afield. It still feels like she’s the sun and all the other characters orbit around her, but she’s very slowly collapsing in on herself and in danger of becoming a black hole.
Awful But Accurate Depiction. Also I think they PS’d Chapman’s eyes blue; in the show her eyes are dark brown. Also Daya looks AMAZING here! That glow! Those lips!
Oz’s strength lay in the showrunners following ALL the stories, not just one. It feels like when Piper finishes her sentence, OITNB will end, and that’s just not what the show is anymore. It’s done too much for the LBGT community (Laverne Cox was on TIME MAGAZINE!) and for actresses of color to go out that way.
Have you watched either show? What are your thoughts?
