Things not to say in an airport...

"Purpose of your visit?"

"I'm here to shoot a pilot."

Anyways, I'm off to read a script now. Kind of ironic that I'm helping to determine the fate of another writer, but that's the way the cookie crumbles...

Poor, poor HAL

Flipping channels while eating a late lunch and stumbled across 2001: A Space Odyssey. Normally this would be a good (if time intensive) thing.

Not this time.

Nope, not this time, cause this time I stumbled onto it just as Bowman was killing HAL.

Poor, poor HAL.

I'm going to go cry now.

The Wire

Growing up I was a big fan of hip hop culture. In my defense I never actually thought or pretended I was from the ghetto. Nope. I was quite content to embrace my gangly, white nerdiness throughout high school. I just liked listening to some of the music and watching some movies.

Ten years on and it's obvious that the movies had a huge impact. Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society still make it onto any of my top ten lists. I'm a huge fan of early Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and Clockers to name a few), and I'm embarassed to say that one of my guilty pleasures are modern blaxploitation movies (The Best man, The Brothers...I know they're not really blaxsploitation, but that's what I call 'em).

Over the last couple of years I'd been hearing a lot of good things about an HBO show called The Wire. Ostensibly it's a cop show set in Baltimore's crumbling innercity. It's a world of tough cops, ruthless dealers and the ugly reality of life in the innercity.

At least that's what I thought.

Trying to compare The Wire to any urban hood show that's gone before is like comparing a Monet to a school kid's scribble.

This. Show. Is. Fabulous.

It goes far beyond any cop show that's come before. In fact just calling it a cop show seems wrong. This is a show about a real place, about real people. Everything and everyone is drawn in such detail, with such loving attention, that it feels like you can reach through your TV screen and actually touch them.

The tragedy of their situation is overwhelming. This is a city, and a people, on the verge of collapse. It's their inherent nobility that keeps them coming back, forces them to continue to do their best in a bad situation. And the nobility isn't limited to the "good guys."

Some of the most memorable (and dare I say likeable?) characters in The Wire are its "villains." Barksdale. Stringer Bell. Omar. Bubbles. These are some of the most flawed, most interesting people I've ever seen on screen. And I am absolutely riveted by them.

I cannot say enough about this series. Anyone who's interested in great television (or just great storytelling) needs to pick it up. I cannot recommend The Wire highly enough. You will not be disappointed.

Spiderman 3

Saw this the other night. Thought about writing up a big review, but decided against it. Why? Because I already wasted 3 frakkin' hours of my life on this movie and I refuse to waste more.

Besides my impression of the movie can be summed up with two things:

Good Spiderman hair! Bad Spiderman Hair!

AND

Dance Sequence!

That's it.

Move along.

Nothing to see here.

Thoughts and Musings

...big shout out to Zach Lipovsky who managed to blow away the judges on On the Lot last night. Not only does Zach have some great shorts to his name (Crazy Late anyone?), but he's also from Vancouver! Gotta support the locals!

...maybe I'm missing something being a heterosexual male, but paying $350K to kiss George Clooney? At least it was going to a good cause...

...is anyone else looking forward to The Bionic Woman? I am! And not just because one of my favorite actresses is in it (and apparently stealing the show!).

...I know NBC had a rough season, but I'm not sure that firing Kevin Reilly is the best call. Hopefully they'll still give Friday Night Lights a chance...

Maybe I'll get it together to write a real post later tonight...but I wouldn't count on it (being Friday and all)...

Breaking Into the Box

Clark Perry has a great recap of this seminar that was held down in LA last weekend. A must read for anyone who dreams of breaking into writing for television.

The Best Years

I wanted to like this show. Really I did.

College shows are notoriously hard to do. Personally I don't want to speculate as to why (at least not in this post). One of the few successful college shows I can think of was Felicity (which I never really liked). Undeclared was brilliant, of course it got cancelled way before its' time. I figured that The Best Years probably wouldn't live up to Undeclared, but maybe, just maybe, it might be another Felicity.

For those who don't know, The Best Years is about Samantha Best, a spunky orphan who's made it to the Ivy League through pluck and determination. We follow her as she navigates the perils of college, new friends, new enemies and greater freedom all competing with her need to keep her scholarship (after all she's a poor orphan, right? A poor orphan with remarkably nice clothes...).

As a premise I'd say it's a bit tired and thin, but I'm willing to go along with it. At the very least it offers up the ability to play off class politics, one of the things that made the first season of Veronica Mars so great. Of course Veronica Mars had some top knotch writing to back it up. My hope was that the writing on The Best Years would be equally good, after all the creator / show runner is no hack.

His name's Aaron Martin, and he got his start on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Personally I've only caught episodes here and there, but generally I've been impressed. The Degrassi name has a certain cache to it, and going from a high school soap to a college soap seems like a natural progression. He's also a graduate of the CFC PrimeTime program, which is a bit of a holy grail for me at this point in my career.

All of this led me to believe that maybe, just maybe The Best Years might live up to the shows that have come before. It could've been the next Undeclared. At the very least the next Felicity. Unfortunately it's neither. In fact, it's just plain bad.

The problem as I see it is twofold. The first is the lack of original characters. Samantha, the plucky orphan, is alright. Casting Charity Shea was a great choice, she's likable and brings a quirky charm to the role that elevates it. She's the high point.

The rest of the characters are laughable. We have the rich-bitch roomate (who's blonde in case you didn't guess). The basketball jock love interest. The Asian nerd we can't help but love. None of the characters provide a twist on the stereotype. None of them have a whiff of originality. They're flat out boring.

The second problem is a lack of (believable) complications. Samantha's overriding need is to stay in college. Her first obstacle? The fact that she can't afford her meal plan! Oh noes! Later on one of their drunken friends falls off the roof they're all hanging out on and plummets to his death. What do they do? Cover it up!

Um...say what? These are (supposedly) smart college students who care about this guy, and they cover it up? And then the next night they all go out clubbing! Now I'm not saying that people on TV have to make a whole let of sense...but that's going a little too far.

I could go on, but I won't. What I would like to say is that I'm really, really disappointed. Canadian TV is in dire straights. We need to have more successful shows like Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairies, and yes, Degrassi: The Next Generation. Given the creative talent behind The Best Years I was hoping that it might be able to join that pantheon. Instead we're given a show that's far from The Best.

In which our hero screws the proverbial pooch...

Ever have one of those days where the world conspires against you, upsetting your best laid plans? Sometimes we can just throw up our hands and blame fate. "Surely," we say, "this can't be my fault."

Well today was one of those days for me. Minus the ability to throw up my hands and blame fate bit.

See, this truly was my fault. I screwed up big time. My boss, and even some of my coworkers, have been severely inconvenienced. Who knows! I might even lose my job over it! No, it's not all that likely, but it's a possibility and it's most definitely there.

So. Here I sit. I've been through the emotional wringer all day. My stomach is still churning with stress. Seriously contemplating a public act of ritual suicide (again...not really...but the thought of falling on my sword does have a certain panache given the situation), only to have things be put into perspective.

Nobody died. No irrevocable damage was done. Sure people are pissed at me, but that too will pass.

"An expert is someone who's made all the stupid mistakes. An idiot is someone who repeats them."

I've made this stupid mistake. I'll do my best not to repeat it.

Oh...and if you want to know what it was I did...bribery works wonders (especially beer!).

You poor, poor saps...

Watched the premiere of On the Lot tonight. Not a huge fan of reality television on principle, but this is a show that I could definitely get behind. 50 filmmakers from around the world vying for a one million dollar development deal with Dreamworks.

Not too shabby...

The first challenge (ah yes, the infamous reality show challenge) was to pitch a feature based on randomly assigned log lines. As someone who's been in that exact situation (okay, not exact, I was pitching a good ole TeeVee series, not a feature) I sat there writhing with discomfort, nervous on behalf of people I've never met.

But man oh man, if you ever need an example of how NOT to pitch, was that ever a great thing to watch...

Yay!

My story editing internship application is (finally) ready to go!

Now it's time for bed...

Create a new blog...

...and promptly neglect it for weeks on end. Not a good precedent, but in my defense I was house sitting a house with no internet access...

More to follow...