Something Old, Something New
Baseball aside, I don't watch television on a regular basis. This is not a snob thing; I don't go around saying things like no, I don't watch television - I'm too busy reading Shakespeare in Aramaic. I find it adds so much depth to the original plays, don't you think? I eschew television - and cable - because I know what a horrific clicker I am, and how many hours I'd waste clicking through programs of dubious value. So it is that I love the fact that so many programs are now available on DVD, allowing me to revisit old favorites and take in quality shows that I missed during their original airing all according to my own schedule.
Some ten or so years ago David Simon, then a reporter covering the police beat for The Baltimore Sun, wrote a book called Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The book stemmed from the year Simon spent in the company of Baltimore City homicide detectives, and is the best piece of non fiction on police work that I've yet to come across. It also became the basis for the excellent TV show Homicide: Life on the Streets.
I think I heard, or read, in passing that NYPD Blue (which premiered the year after Homicide) has entered it's last season. No doubt NYPD Blue will leave many critical accolades in it's wake, but to my mind the shorter-lived Homicide was always the superior show. To be sure Blue was sexier (to which I attribute it's superior ratings), what with the 'controversial' language and use of nudity, but the show's melodrama and endless tragedies befalling characters made it seem more like a soap opera coincidentally set in a police precinct than a show about police.
Homicide was first and foremost about policework. Police work - especially the work homicide detectives do - is not glamorous and Homicide reflected that sensibility. Co-produced by Baltimore native Barry Levinson (of Diner fame) it was shot entirely with handheld cameras, on location in Fells Point (where I used to live which no doubt accounts somewhat for my love of this show). Homicide was definitely not sexy. There was no cussing or ass shots, no car chases, and very little gun play. More typical would be an episode where two detectives spent the show looking through impounded car lots. It was about the work, and how the work affected the people who did it. The cast was first rate without being flashy, Yaphet Kotto and Andre Braugher in particular, and who ever selected the music used in the show had excellent and wide-ranging taste.
The first five seasons are available on DVD and thanks to netflix I'm enjoying re-visiting all of them. Also thanks to netflix, I'm looking forward to the release of the first season of The Wire on DVD. Also set and filmed in Baltimore, The Wire is Simon's creation for HBO and features contributions from two of my favorite writers, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane. The third season recently premiered; while I catch up on the first one I hope the next two rapidly follow on DVD.
On the topic of catching up, I just finished viewing the sole season of Joss Whedon's Firefly. Whedon created Buffy, which I've enjoyed, but I absolutely feel in love with Firefly. Billed as science fiction Firefly is more accurately called space opera. What's the difference you ask? While science fiction has more science in the fiction (think Blade Runner or Strange Days), space opera is what you get when take a specific story type and dress it up with 'scientific' trappings like ray guns and ships. Star Wars is space opera - it's a fairy tale set in a mythic future, and you could change the setting without changing the basic story line.
In the case of Firefly what you have is a western in space, and since I love westerns I'm more than ok with that. The show revolves around the nine crewmembers of the firefly class space ship Serenity. The setting is a frontier region of outer space that bears more than a little resemblance to the post Civil War American west. Two of the nine characters are veterans of a civil war in which they fought on the losing side, and like many of their real-life counterparts, they headed to the frontier. And also like certain of their real-life counterparts, such as the James-Younger gang, the crew of the Serenity is not averse to operating on the wrong side of the law. The musical score of Firefly has a western feel, with lots of twangy guitars and fiddles; the cast's dress and diction would not be out of place in John Ford's Monument Valley. The characters themselves are stereotypes that will be familiar to any fans of westerns: the Preacher, the Doctor, The Whore with a Heart of Gold, the Gunman with an Unspoken Code of Honor, the Outlaw With Hidden Sense of Decency.
But so what if they're stereotypes? I once read, or heard, that if you strip away the extraneous details, any story line can be slotted into seven archetypical plots. I imagine you can do the same with characters - strip away the details and plug them into pre-existing archetypes. It's the details that matter; the details that determine whether a story grabs or makes us yawn and say 'been there, done that, read the book.' And it's the details that determine whether a certain character comes to life and becomes real to us, or remains a forgettable and passing image on the screen or page.
Firefly gets all the details right. The characters are all recognizable stereotypes. And they all come to life as individuals on the screen. Firefly was cancelled during the first season. When I watched the final episode on DVD, I was terribly disappointed that there was no more time to be spent in the company of Capt. Reynolds and the crew of the Serenity. I wanted to know more about them, and I wanted to know the answer to the ancient question so what happens next? Luckily for me, and other fans of the show, Whedon is taking Firefly to the big screen. I can hardly wait.
Some ten or so years ago David Simon, then a reporter covering the police beat for The Baltimore Sun, wrote a book called Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. The book stemmed from the year Simon spent in the company of Baltimore City homicide detectives, and is the best piece of non fiction on police work that I've yet to come across. It also became the basis for the excellent TV show Homicide: Life on the Streets.
I think I heard, or read, in passing that NYPD Blue (which premiered the year after Homicide) has entered it's last season. No doubt NYPD Blue will leave many critical accolades in it's wake, but to my mind the shorter-lived Homicide was always the superior show. To be sure Blue was sexier (to which I attribute it's superior ratings), what with the 'controversial' language and use of nudity, but the show's melodrama and endless tragedies befalling characters made it seem more like a soap opera coincidentally set in a police precinct than a show about police.
Homicide was first and foremost about policework. Police work - especially the work homicide detectives do - is not glamorous and Homicide reflected that sensibility. Co-produced by Baltimore native Barry Levinson (of Diner fame) it was shot entirely with handheld cameras, on location in Fells Point (where I used to live which no doubt accounts somewhat for my love of this show). Homicide was definitely not sexy. There was no cussing or ass shots, no car chases, and very little gun play. More typical would be an episode where two detectives spent the show looking through impounded car lots. It was about the work, and how the work affected the people who did it. The cast was first rate without being flashy, Yaphet Kotto and Andre Braugher in particular, and who ever selected the music used in the show had excellent and wide-ranging taste.
The first five seasons are available on DVD and thanks to netflix I'm enjoying re-visiting all of them. Also thanks to netflix, I'm looking forward to the release of the first season of The Wire on DVD. Also set and filmed in Baltimore, The Wire is Simon's creation for HBO and features contributions from two of my favorite writers, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane. The third season recently premiered; while I catch up on the first one I hope the next two rapidly follow on DVD.
On the topic of catching up, I just finished viewing the sole season of Joss Whedon's Firefly. Whedon created Buffy, which I've enjoyed, but I absolutely feel in love with Firefly. Billed as science fiction Firefly is more accurately called space opera. What's the difference you ask? While science fiction has more science in the fiction (think Blade Runner or Strange Days), space opera is what you get when take a specific story type and dress it up with 'scientific' trappings like ray guns and ships. Star Wars is space opera - it's a fairy tale set in a mythic future, and you could change the setting without changing the basic story line.
In the case of Firefly what you have is a western in space, and since I love westerns I'm more than ok with that. The show revolves around the nine crewmembers of the firefly class space ship Serenity. The setting is a frontier region of outer space that bears more than a little resemblance to the post Civil War American west. Two of the nine characters are veterans of a civil war in which they fought on the losing side, and like many of their real-life counterparts, they headed to the frontier. And also like certain of their real-life counterparts, such as the James-Younger gang, the crew of the Serenity is not averse to operating on the wrong side of the law. The musical score of Firefly has a western feel, with lots of twangy guitars and fiddles; the cast's dress and diction would not be out of place in John Ford's Monument Valley. The characters themselves are stereotypes that will be familiar to any fans of westerns: the Preacher, the Doctor, The Whore with a Heart of Gold, the Gunman with an Unspoken Code of Honor, the Outlaw With Hidden Sense of Decency.
But so what if they're stereotypes? I once read, or heard, that if you strip away the extraneous details, any story line can be slotted into seven archetypical plots. I imagine you can do the same with characters - strip away the details and plug them into pre-existing archetypes. It's the details that matter; the details that determine whether a story grabs or makes us yawn and say 'been there, done that, read the book.' And it's the details that determine whether a certain character comes to life and becomes real to us, or remains a forgettable and passing image on the screen or page.
Firefly gets all the details right. The characters are all recognizable stereotypes. And they all come to life as individuals on the screen. Firefly was cancelled during the first season. When I watched the final episode on DVD, I was terribly disappointed that there was no more time to be spent in the company of Capt. Reynolds and the crew of the Serenity. I wanted to know more about them, and I wanted to know the answer to the ancient question so what happens next? Luckily for me, and other fans of the show, Whedon is taking Firefly to the big screen. I can hardly wait.
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