One More Thing

I feel that I should say this now before I start the next posting series. I will be starting law school in one week, and while I plan on continuing this website for as long as I can, I am not sure how my school schedule will affect my posting frequency. I mean, watching Buffy and Angel had an effect on my work in The Other Worlds, so think about what the first year of law school will do to it.

I write this to let you know that I am not abandoning this project. You just may have to be a little more patient for new material in the upcoming months.

Thank you to all of my readers and I hope that you will continue to visit The Other Worlds to learn about new stories and hopefully find a new perspective on ones you already love.

Up next: Wonderful afterlife...

The Age Of Television and Setting Up Two Series

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a coworker about the state of entertainment while we were eating lunch. We discussed methods of storytelling, and I expressed the belief that we are living in "The Age of Television". This idea has been formulating in my head for some time now, and it describes the fact that serialized television shows are at an all-time high of popularity, and are one of the best methods of telling stories. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great films being produced and books will probably never lose their ability to tell a better story than a visual medium, but in a time when character development can be focused on over the course of 22 hours, as opposed to the two we receive at the cinema, TV has really come into its own as a storytelling medium.

Shows like Battlestar Galactica, LOST and Dexter can slowly build up stories and characters, develop tension that builds until an event snaps said tension and leads to a new story development. Even more "traditional" shows like How I Met Your Mother are paying more and more attention to their established continuity, in order to make the story more rewarding for viewers.

I think this is why television shows make up so much of the discussion on The Other Worlds; I love movies, but they aren't always the best way to tell a grand story, even the most epic of films. It is harder to do a series of posts on a single movie than on a television series, since there is so much more material to work with.

I wanted to talk about this so that you would know why I am putting so much time into TV. I am not forsaking film and written material, but there will probably always be more to work with on TV.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the next series will focus on some television series. I had wanted to do The L Word next, since I was blown away by the first season, but I think that it would be better to wait and get a few more seasons under my belt. So I have decided that it is time to do some work on Heroes. I will examine what made the first season such a breakout hit and will do, for the first time, a post that is focused on the negative aspects of something (I am sad to do so, but it is almost necessary since I am doing it for something I enjoy, and not just to rag on something I hate).

I also wanted to do something on Pushing Daisies, since I am very excited for its return and wanted to make sure I addressed it before its return. I realized that both of these shows have a few things in common. Both have connections to Bryan Fuller, both became surprise hits, and both were very affected by the Writers Strike. I will begin the upcoming post series by talking about Bryan Fuller's work before Heroes and Pushing Daisies, and will segue into Pushing Daisies (since it was actually created by Fuller). After that, I will move on to Heroes.

Up next: Souvenir shops and waffle houses...

The Legend of Neil: Link to the Game

I wish that I could say that my love for The Legend of Zelda game series is what brought me to this web series. But it wasn't. I learned that Felicia Day had a role in it, and I watched the third episode first, since that is the one where she is most prominently featured (so far). You may have noticed that I've been talking a lot about her lately; there seems to be a kind of web series community out there, and she is one of the focal points (The Legend of Neil was created by Sandeep Parikh, who worked with Day on The Guild, as well as working with her and Jeff Lewis AKA Vork in an LA improv troupe). I even went back and added her name as a tag on posts about media containing her (except for Buffy, since she had such a minor role in the final season). As I said in the last post, she should be more famous than she is, since it is clear that she can write and act (and is a definite cutie). But she was the initial draw to this. What I found was more than I could have ever imagined.

The Legend of Neil is a parody done right; it knows its source material backwards and forwards because, in spite of ample material that can be made fun of, the creators of the parody love the source (leading to my coining of the term parotribute in a recent post). It is clear that Parikh and Tony Janning have played a little too much Zelda (if such a thing exists), and they know Hyrule and its foibles like the back of their left hands (Link is left-handed for those of you who aren't Zelda players). This strategy is what makes the works of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright so incredible, as well as the flash videos by Matt Gardner:



Gardner has obviously read the comics that contain the stories he satirizes, and he also has knowledge of overall comic book cliches, such as the "comic book death". But this post is about The Legend of Neil, so let's get back to that. The story is about Neil, a Zelda fanatic who made the drunken choice to asphyxiate himself with a Nintendo controller while masturbating to a fairy in the original NES game. He lost consciousness and woke up in Hyrule, where everyone believes him to be Link. He is forced to don the green clothes of the Hylian hero if he hopes to return home to our world. But along the way, he has to fight enemies, save Princess Zelda and deal with crotchety old men.

So far, the series has poked fun at the fact that Link uses hearts dropped from enemies to heal himself (they used to be in a dead monster's body!), weird old men seem to have answers to questions Link hasn't asked yet, master works of swordsmanship tend to be free, there are few ethnicities in the game (I think in recent years, we meet the occasional black person, but for the most part, there are white people and Arabic-esque people, who tend to be villains) and the fact that Link is nearly genetically predisposed to use a sword (unfortunately, Neil is not).

This is by far the most mature series of the three that I am writing about. And by mature, I mean intended for mature audiences. There is a lot of profanity (which is another way it pokes fun at Zelda; no one in Hyrule, not even the insanely evil Ganon, or the surly ranch hand in Ocarina of Time, has a foul mouth), sexual references (just look at the origin story) and violence. Of course, these references to anatomy and sex are priceless coming from the mouths of elves, bearded old wise men and a sex-obsessed fairy (Felicia Day's role, which certainly a departure from pretty much every other role I've seen her in).

Once again, I will put up the website (I'm not sure which of these is the actual website, so I will list its location on Effinfunny and Atom, though I'm beginning to think that the Effinfunny site may be its home). I am also posting the first episode so that you can get your first taste of it if you have yet to check it out:

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

Just a heads up; as I am writing this post, the videos seem to be down, so if the embeded video isn't working when you click on it, try it again in a few hours or so.

Up next: Two breakout series...

The Guild: Real Life Quests

I honestly don't know why Felicia Day isn't a bigger star than she is; I kind of see her as an American Simon Pegg (Simone Pegg?), and if all were right with the world, she'd have her own Spaced-type show by now (this is more of an Arrested Development reference than a dig at the McG-produced American version of Spaced). The Guild certainly has some similarities with the incredible British show; both are about the mundane aspects of real life and follow twentysomething underachievers as they try to use fantasy to "improve" reality.

The Guild was the brainchild of Day after she became a bit of a World of Warcraft junkie. It was originally going to be a sitcom, but it ended up as a webseries since it could target the niche audience it was intended for and not be concerned with ratings (the show is financed by donations, and as soon as the donation link is reestablished on the site, found here, I will be making sure that there will be episodes beyond the upcoming Season 2). Day incorporated some of herself into lead character Cyd Sherman, such as the fact that both Day and Cyd were child prodigy violinists, and one of the main ideas behind the series is that, contrary to popular belief, not all gamers are overweight dudes who live in their mothers' basements. In fact, there is no overweight male to be found on The Guild (there is a plus-sized woman, but she is the mother).

The first season takes place over the course of three or four days. We are introduced to the Knights of Good, a World of Warcraft guild composed of a bunch of unemployed internet and video game addicts. Day's Cyd (avatar name of Codex) is a somewhat depressed young woman who was recently "dumped" by her therapist and lost her most recent boyfriend when she caught him cheating on her (she lost another one when he, along with Cyd's father, "turned gay"). Her craving for a real social support system is what causes the guild to meet in person for the first time. Zaboo is a weird and obsessive "Hinjew" who tracks down Codex after her accidental use of too many ;) emoticons leads him to believe that his romantic feelings for Codex, whom he had never met, are mutual (this just goes to prove that the internet just can't convey emotion properly ;)). Vork is the fearless leader of the Knights of Good fearlessly while in the World, but is a timid, middle-aged, unemployed, penny-pinching man in the world. Clara (both the real name and avatar name) is an inattentive mother who spends more time online than with her kids (some of the best visual humor in The Guild comes from seeing how her kids deal with the neglect). Tinkerballa (avatar name and real name... as far as we know) is the group's hot Asian who is cynical and in constant need of virtual stimulation (she rarely is seen without her DS). And Bladezz is the guild's "retarded cousin" (in the words of Clara) who embarrasses the group by yelling profanity on the server's message board, but is retained due to his great skills as a rogue.

Though there are a fair number of scenes showing the Knights of Good engaging in raids and quests, we never actually see any in-game footage. This series is about the real lives of these characters, which are full of video game references. They apply World of Warcraft ideas and slang to everyday situations; this is most evident in the "boss fight" finale, but there are other examples, such as when Zaboo gives Codex a bouquet of blue flowers that he made because he bought her character blue flowers in the game, or Bladezz referring to everyone as n00bs. When Codex tries to arrange the guild's first real-world meeting, Tinkerballa refuses to go until Codex bribes her... with game gold. And Codex, who begins each episode with a monologue into her video blog (these segments further prove that Day has great comic timing), at one point mentions that life is so much easier to measure in experience points than in real life lessons.

I have never touched World of Warcraft myself, or any other MMORPG (though if the Firefly one is ever released, I may have to give that one a whirl; however, I am a fan of games, like Zelda, Chrono Trigger and a few of the Final Fantasy games), and I failed Internet Slang 101, so a few of the jokes are lost on me. Still, this is an incredibly funny series that will be enjoyable to anyone who has even a basic knowledge of the internet and video games. In fact, it has been so successful that Day has been commissioned to write a new Warcraft-based series that will serve, in her words, as the reverse of The Guild. This one will take place completely in-game, and will have fantasy characters dealing with mundane situations. I can already see Kreggenmoor the Destroyer worrying about his upcoming date ($100 in internet money to anyone who knows what that's a reference to... and another $10 in internet money to the person who knows what internet money is a reference to).

If you've never seen the show, here is the first episode to get you started:



Also, here is an interesting interview with Day and Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo) talking about the show:



Up next: Legen - wait for it - dary...

Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog: The Dream Is Realized

Joss Whedon has once again done the impossible, and it has made him mighty (Firefly reference!). In the midst of a strike that was based on the idea that internet content was a way to take money away from the writers, Whedon wrote a made-for-the-internet miniseries that not only made money, but was incredibly successful (the site crashed the first day, and the series immediately became one of the most downloaded items on iTunes).

Telling the story of a low-rent supervillain's rise to power, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog looks at the nature of heroism and accepting society the way it is. In my last post about it, Act III hadn't yet been released, and I expected another incredibly funny denouement (for a full look at my prediction for the final act, read said post). After watching Dr. Horrible complain about how society is broken, and see Penny express the same beliefs, but also believe in a ray of hope, I expected to see the status quo upheld. Instead, Dr. Horrible finally succeeded in defeating Captain Hammer (sort of) and gaining entrance into the Evil League of Evil, but it came with a price (just like everything in the Whedonverse).

After two incredible acts, there was some debate over the third act. Some people said that it was just as strong as the first two (and maybe even the strongest of the three). Others claimed that it was a departure in theme and suffered from "women in refrigerator syndrome". When I first saw it, I didn't dislike it, but I was certainly taken aback, since there was a strong swing from comedy into tragedy. But as I thought about it some more, I found that I liked it more and more. The second act remains my favorite, both due to it having the best songs and best jokes, but Act III certainly has its place in the story of the bad doctor.

In a sense, Horrible's actions continue to uphold the status quo, since his actions begin to lose reason. In Acts I and II, he did what he did to protest the fucked up nature of our society. He had an angry passion. But by the end, he was a cog in the evil machine, and it is only a matter of time before he meets his new nemesis (or Captain Hammer gets out of therapy). On the other hand, I noticed a few similarities between Horrible and the Joker from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (Whedon, Nolan and Alan Ball need to team up to do some sort of uber-movie). They both decry the status quo (my brother and I have pretty much done the "Then everybody loses their minds" quote to death). They talk about how life is filled with lies and look at how tragedy has been normalized. But Dr. Horrible isn't a soulless psychopath (at least not in the first two acts) and the Joker probably doesn't care about fixing things (though Horrible may not either). Still, this is an pretty interesting connection.

Interestingly enough, I had a similar conversation with a girl about the nature of society, where I played Horrible's role, stating pessimism that things will get better anytime soon, whereas she agreed that something is wrong, but expressed hope. It was kind of scary that the biggest difference between us and the Billy/Penny laundromat scene was that I worked up the courage to ask her out.

Whedon knocked another one out of the park, but, as always, this would be nothing without the actors. Neil Patrick Harris is an incredible singer, and Day and Fillion are no slouches themselves. They looked like they had a blast, judging from the footage from Comic Con (I am including this not because it goes in depth into the making of Dr. Horrible, but because it is so damn funny, and it shows that the actors are very comfortable together:


Felicia Day Twitters from hacksaway on Vimeo.

To be perfectly honest, when I first saw this video, I had no idea that Twitter was a kind of instant messaging/blogging service. I thought it was some sort of slang from Alabama that had to do with... I don't know what I thought it had to do with.

Fortunately, we have been promised more Dr. Horrible in some medium, and I believe that it can't get here fast enough. You can watch the series here. There will be a DVD release soon.

Up next: Living in the World...

Webvision

I've presented a lot of worlds that have been told at the movie theater, on television, and in books. I have talked about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a web series, but only because it was written by Joss Whedon. However, since watching the good doctor, I have discovered that there are plenty of other web series worth checking out. Granted, the three I am about to present are only a fraction of a fraction of a small percentage of the web series out there (anyone with a camera and an idea can make a webseries, just like any guy with free time and literacy can write a blog).

The first is Dr. Horrible, which gets preference since it was written by Whedon and was the first series that I watched. After that, I will look at The Guild, which was created, written by and stars Felicia Day (who played Penny in Dr. Horrible). The Guild follows a group of World of Warcraft players as they live their lives as hybrids of reality and game stereotypes. Finally, I look at The Legend of Neil, a recently discovered series that parotributes (my new word for something that parodies and pays tribute to its source material) The Legend of Zelda (of which I'm a huge fan). How did I discover Neil? I learned that Felicia Day guest starred as a naughty fairy (I'm starting to think that this attention I pay to her work may be as unhealthy as the devotion I give to Whedon).

Up next: The status is not quo...

Heroes: Pandora's Box

The internet really is great. Though this wasn't what I'd intended to do next (webseries are up next), this serves as a great interlude that fits in with the theme. As I said earlier, the alternate ending to the second volume of Heroes was going to be a deciding factor in the worthiness of buying the second season DVD set (I will do a post series on Heroes soon, where I will go in depth into my problems with the second season, but they are pretty much in line with the problems EVERYBODY had with it). Well, thanks to the internet, here it is, and it is awesome:



I don't know how long it will be up, since one YouTube posting of it had the embed feature disabled by request. But this ending not only was great, it had promise for the future. It showed Nathan in a leadership role and reminded us that he used to be a politician. It showed Parkman using his powers in a way that could one day turn to misuse, in order to serve the greater good. His influencing of the police men could also lead to Nathan gaining political power in Odessa (assuming he and the town survives the plague). We get to see the bridge from "Company Man" again, which had one of the series' best scenes. And Rose Petrelli's "Pandora's box" remark has much more meaning here.

Up next: Serialized stories enter a new medium...

Alan Ball: Life and Death

Sorry for not posting in so long; I just got back from vacation (and though I went to the Bahamas, there were plenty of times I felt like I was in Wonderland, due to the absolutely irrational way the airlines behaved), and have not had any time to post. Anyway, Alan Ball's American Beauty and Six Feet Under also share themes relating to life and death. Once again, these were explored to much greater depths in SFU, partly because it was a series and partly because they were the MAIN theme, but both worlds had very interesting things to say on the subject.

In American Beauty, the opening narration (after the prologue) reveals that Lester will be dead by the end of the year (and, most likely, the end of the movie), but claims that, in many ways, he's dead already. His wife and daughter walk all over him, he is a mindless drone at work and he has very little to do besides provide for his ungrateful family. His discovery of Angela sparks life back into him, and he rediscovers the joys of living. He quits his job in order to have more free time to have fun. He takes a job at a burger joint in order to have no responsibility. He begins working out, smoking marijuana, buys the car of his dreams, and realizes that life is what you make of it. When Carolyn yells at him for almost spilling beer on their expensive sofa (which derailed their attempt to have sex for the first time in forever), he responds that it is meaningless. They won't take the couch with them when they die (if only I could take this attitude towards shit, as he refers to it; I am getting my "shit" together to move to the city, and you should see how many DVDs and books I have). These activities allow him to be at peace when he is on his deathbed; he realizes that he has seen and done what he wanted to do, especially in the few months leading up to his death, and he is happy knowing that he was able to do life right.

Six Feet Under's title may lead you to believe that it is a show about death, but in reality, it is about life. The Fishers learn about life through the deaths they experience, whether it be the deaths of loved ones or of the people related to their customers. As I said in the last post, sex was a big part of the show, especially since a lot of characters used it to feel alive. But there were other methods of holding onto life. Matriarch Ruth felt dead herself up until a few months before her husband Nathaniel died. It was then that she started seeing a man outside of marriage, and it was more than just the sex that helped her revitalize herself. Hiram, her hairdresser, introduced her to camping, which gave her a hobby. After Hiram, she began dating again (I know, sex is a big part of this, but there is more to dating than sex). Her various suitors each taught her something different about life; Arthur (played by Rainn Wilson, who is even more awesomely creepy than he is on The Office) opened her up to a kind of lost innocence, while George taught her how do live in a mixed family.

The other big thing that is reinforced on Six Feet Under is that everybody dies (SPOILER: which is beautifully illustrated by the series finale). Many of the characters start the series fearing death, but by the end, most have accepted that they will die and learn how to live. I've said this before (and by "said this", I mean, "I've quoted Sandman"), but death defines life, and life is what you make of it. Nearly every episode begins with a death, and the Fishers marvel at the people who lived life to the fullest, and are saddened and perplexed by those who squandered their time on Earth. Each type of person (and there are many more categories, which aren't mutually exclusive) teaches the leads a little something about life. Sometimes the families of the deceased give their two cents about life and death, while other times, the characters envision the dead bodies talking to them. Often, the thoughts and emotions of the lead character speaking to the dead person are projected into the conversation through the dead person's dialogue.

Neither American Beauty nor Six Feet Under holds the definitive answer to the mystery of death or the meaning of life (obviously), but they each offer very interesting ideas on the subjects.

Up next: The internet is really, really great...

Alan Ball: Love and Sex

Sex is an integral part of life, seeing as how that is how conception occurs (ok, science has provided alternatives today, but for millenia, sex was the only option). Ball's works portray sex as a part of life that has varying meanings for different people. For some, it is just something that happens. For others, it is a goal. And while love and sex can go together, there are plenty of times when the idea of love is so divorced from sex that the act becomes self-destructive.

In American Beauty, Lester and Angela hold very different opinions of the subject, despite the fact that we watch them amble towards each other across the film. Angela, an immature teenager who fancies herself wise beyond her years, believes that sex will set her apart from the crowd. Numerous acts of meaningless sex will somehow make her special, will give her a kind of life experience that many desire but few achieve. But this only makes her ordinary (as the truly wise-beyond-his-years Ricky points out to her). Lester, on the other hand, hopes that sex with Angela will make him feel young again, or more alive. Lester has been forced to masturbate for who knows how long, since neither he nor his wife are willing to touch each other, and he hopes that sex with a young and seemingly exciting partner will help reinvigorate his life. Both learn otherwise, as Angela is told off by Ricky and pretty much loses Jane as a friend and Lester finds many new outlets to express himself, in spite of his loveless marriage.

Very few of the characters in American Beauty use sex to express love, or even feel love. Carolyn Burnham cheats on Lester with a rival real estate agent in order to feel more successful (and she probably is as horny as Lester, seeing as how they aren't doing anything together). Frank Fitts' marriage can hardly be called such. His wife is nearly catatonic (the reason for which is never given, but there are heavy implications that it is due to the Colonel's treatment of her). There are pretty much only two loving couples in the film. One is the gay couple that lives next door to the Burnhams, and the other is Jane and Ricky. That relationship got off to a rocky start, but they become truly happy, despite being labeled "freaks" by the more "normal"/"oridnary" Angela. They never have sex in the movie, but if they had, it would have been an expression of love.

Since Six Feet Under was a weekly series that ran for five years, there is much more love and sex to look at. Once again, love and sex aren't exactly synonymous for the Fisher family. Though (I'm not sure I can use the word "healthy" here) couples like David and Keith, Nate and Brenda, and Claire and (I won't give the name) her future husband have sex because they love each other, sex is used to express nearly every emotion there is. The Fishers are repressed, and the family, especially David, who begins the show deep in the closet, often use sex destructively. David cheats on his boyfriends because it's dangerous (best example was when he fucked a Vegas prostitute in a parking lot) and unexpected. Claire tends to go for hopeless losers, most likely because they are projects that she can work on, while Nate, who developed a death phobia due to his father's rather nonchalant take on the subject, has had many conquests (he met Brenda on an airplane and had sex with her in an airport closet) to feel alive. Brenda and her family are the opposite; while sex is a taboo subject at the Fishers' dinner table, the Chenowiths talk about sex as if it were sports. Brenda's mom tells stories about her exploits with her husband, Brenda and her brother are almost too close for comfort, and she eventually develops a kind of sex addiction that spells trouble for her and Nate's wedding plans.

The two more normal characters are Keith, David's lover, and Rico, the Fishers' employee. However, like any human, neither of them are perfect, and some of their views on sex aren't exactly healthy. Rico is homophobic, which extends beyond the act of sex and into love. Over the course of the series, he and David have to work through and around this difference of opinion. And since David isn't the world's only gay man, there are times when this "problem" follows Rico to his private life. Keith, on the other hand, is loving, but can be distant. His home life was more violent than the rest of the characters, and intimacy was a bit of a problem for him. This led to him desiring more adventurous forms of sex, such as threeways, which sometimes put David off (though David was the one who tended to cheat more often). He also disagreed with David over how to express love, which led to a few quarrels between the two. And yet, over the course of the five years, David and Keith remained one of the strongest relationships around, which can be attributed to their verbal honesty.

Up next: Our time on Earth...

Six Feet Under: Matters of Life and Death

The success of American Beauty brought Sam Mendes and Alan Ball's names into the attention of the mainstream media. The exact details of how Six Feet Under was created are murky and conflicting, but the point of the story is that in 2001, Alan Ball had his own series on HBO. Six Feet Under was about a family that ran an independent funeral home in Los Angeles, and it followed their lives as they dealt with death, love, acceptance and, most importantly, life.

The series began with the death of Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. as he was driving to the airport to pick up Nate, Jr., who had left LA years ago to make his own life in Seattle. Nate didn't abandon his family entirely (he came home for Christmas and such), but due to his repressed fear of death that he developed due to his misunderstanding of what his father actually did in their basement, he had become somewhat of a prodigal son. Although Nate originally intended to stay only for about a week, in order to help his mother deal with her grief, Nathaniel left 50% of the funeral home to both of his sons, which upset them both. Nate wanted nothing to do with the funeral home, while David had spent years of his life working there, sacrificing his dream of becoming a lawyer, and felt his father had cheated him. This added to the tension between the two brothers, but by the first season's end, they had become trusting partners.

The main theme of the series is about life and death; death defines life (more Sandman wisdom for you!), and therefore, you should live your life the way you want because you never know when death is coming. Insecurities about life manifest themselves through conversations between living and dead characters; all of the surviving Fishers "speak" to Nathaniel at some point in the series, and his personality reflects the person he is talking to. For example, David, who is a closeted homosexual, fears that people don't accept him, and so when he speaks to his father, Nathaniel acts homophobic. Dead bodies brought to the Fisher & Sons Funeral Home also have a tendency to speak to the living characters, acting as a mirror for the character's thought. Rico, the Fishers' conservative employee, was against holding the funeral of both a murder and his victim, and saw them both arguing with each other.

Not all of the fantastical elements involve dead bodies. The title Six Feet Under refers both to the colloquialism for death but also to the fact that many of the characters suppress their emotions, and they tend to come out in fantasy sequences. These range from terrifying (an image of someone committing suicide) to frickin' awesome (whenever Claire or David sing their emotions is great, since both Lauren Ambrose and Michael C. Hall are professionally trained singers).

These glimpses into the minds of the characters help show us what people are really thinking, since most of the characters would never express how they truly felt. The main exception to this is Brenda, a woman Nate met on the plane from Seattle. She is the anti-Fisher; there is no opinion that she will not give, no feeling she will not express. This isn't to say that she is an airheaded girl who speaks every thought that comes across her mind (a la Cordelia Chase from the early Buffyverse). Rather, if she feels strongly about something, she makes it known. But nearly everyone else goes through life ignoring the thoughts and feelings that would make life so much simpler, thus complicating relationships (and keeping the storylines compelling for us).

Before I end, I would like to post a few videos. None of the footage is from the series itself; these are promos released before the the season premieres of the second through the fifth seasons. They aren't too spoilerish (though they do reveal what characters are active), but they are very well-shot. Feel free to skip ahead to the next post, but if you never saw the series on HBO, these aren't included on the DVD sets, so here they are to enjoy.

Season 2:


Season 3:


Season 4:


Season 5:


Up next: Love...

American Beauty: Reawakening

American Beauty took the world by storm in 1999. It received nearly universal acclaim for the writing, directing and acting. Unfortunately, the only reason I took (limited) notice of it was because 1999 was the year that the movie American Pie was released, and the two titles sounded similar enough (and shared an actress, but I wouldn't realize that for a few years) to me to associate them. I was a year away from high school, so of the two, American Pie interested me more. Also, the one person I knew who saw American Beauty detested it.

Nine years later (read: this year), I started reading a book on screenwriting and the author made numerous positive references to American Beauty. After years of hearing about how good the film was, and finally getting a few tidbits of information about the film, I decided to finally see it. I don't really remember what I was expecting, but what I saw outshone even my highest beliefs of what the movie could have been. It tells the story of a middle-aged man named Lester who feels that he is dead inside. He has a seemingly perfect life with a beautiful wife and a good-looking daughter. However, neither of them take him seriously; Carolyn, his wife, thinks he is pathetic while Jane suffers from a teenaged perspective of her parents.

When Lester and Carolyn attend a high school basketball game to encourage Jane's cheerleading, Lester sees Jane's friend Angela, a beautiful young girl whose desire to be special may be her greatest flaw, and falls head over heels in lust. From there, Lester decides that he will start living his life the way he always dreamed he would (apparently, these dreams must have come from his teenage years, since he in many ways becomes a teenager... except with more emotional maturity).

This post serves as a kind of overview of the film; rest assured, there is much more going on than I am saying here, but I will reserve the thematic analysis for the upcoming posts when I compare and contrast American Beauty with Six Feet Under. But this simple story of a man reigniting his life is full of ideas regarding the nature of life and death, tolerance, hidden meanings, suburban life and the appearance of perfection. Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes present us with an incredible story, which is brought to life by a cast of wonderful actors who all give award-worthy performances. I can't praise Kevin Spacey enough for his portrayal of Lester, but one of my favorite works in the film is that of Chris Cooper, who gives everything he's got to play Col. Frank Fitts, a retired marine whose struggles with his identity manifest as intolerance and anger.

If you haven't seen American Beauty yet, the point of this post was to get you interested. The upcoming discussions will likely involve a fair amount of spoilers, and I wanted to keep this one fairly clean so I would ruin as little as possible for those who haven't seen it. So see it as soon as possible, because there are a lot of interesting things about the film to deconstruct.

Up next: Deep down...

Getting The Ball Rolling

Up next begins the post series on Alan Ball's Six Feet Under and American Beauty. Both the series and the film are excellent meditations on live, death, love, suburbia and sex. I'm thinking of doing a post for both on their own, and then doing a couple that involve both, since they share many common themes. We'll begin with American Beauty, since it was released first.

Up next: So many roses...

Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: State of the Union

For as long as I can remember, people have been saying that "people don't read books anymore". Obviously, this is an exaggeration, but with the rise of the internet, it's a safe bet that reading is on the decline (and before there was internet, television was to blame). My point here is that it is much more rare today for someone to read a book that will change their life. Therefore, I feel fortunate to have found Peter McWilliam's Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Society.

I came across this book in a used book store in Ann Arbor. I was looking around the place with my (now ex-)girlfriend, and started looking at the section on law books. I will be starting law school in less than a month (from now), and I was interested in seeing what I was getting in to. This book stood out; I found the hardcover version, which has a very colorful dust jacket, depicting a few Renaissance-era paintings. The title caught my attention; I had never heard the term "consensual crime" before, but I was familiar enough with the idea, and I agreed that consensual crimes were harmful. Since the book was used, and therefore, offered at a discount price, I bought it. Let's begin by saying that even though I agreed with the title, I had no idea what information I didn't have.

McWilliams gives a solid definition of "consensual crime": an act that one or more consenting adults (this is important) enter into that does not harm the person or property of a non-consenting party. The fact that children aren't included means that if pornography were to lose any sanctions, child pornography would remain illegal, since children cannot give consent. Throughout the course of the book, McWilliams makes arguments against consensual crimes that appeal to people on both sides of the political spectrum. Human rights violations appeal to the bleeding heart liberals while arguments about how consensual crimes impede business (McWilliams makes some incredible points about how gambling and prostitution would help the economy) are targeted towards money-minded conservatives (note: I am poking fun at the political stereotypes that McWilliams also tends to lampoon in the book). He also traces the roots of laws against consensual crimes, which are based on religion (which he uses the Bible to refute) and racism.

I will expand on the above ideas in a moment, but I would first like to point out one of the most interesting aspects of the book (which, amazingly, has nothing to do with the consensual crime laws themselves). When I wrote about Recount, I noted that it wasn't something that I'd normally write about, since it was not an other world. It was our world. Ain't Nobody's Business also takes place in our world, but it was published in 1996. At the end of the book is a chart that lists all 50 states and shows what is illegal in each state (it looks at hetero and homosexual oral and anal sex, assisted suicide, fornication, cohabitation and adultery). I immediately looked at the chart before reading anything else in the book to see how my home state of Illinois, as well as New York and California (two states I can see myself moving to some day) compared to other states (these three states are some of the most lax about consensual crimes, so awesome!). One thing I noticed was the fact that there was a distinction between straight and gay sex acts (oral sex between straight people may be legal in a given state, but illegal in the same state if done by a homosexual couple). This caught my eye, because I knew that the Lawrence v. Texas case of 2002 struck down all sodomy laws, meaning that there are no longer laws that prohibit the aforementioned sex acts, and do not discriminate against gay couples (at least not on the surface). Knowing this, I thought that they book would be interesting, but outdated. As it turns out, this was nearly the only thing out of date in the book. It was almost terrifying how little things have changed in 12 years.

McWilliams examines both obvious (drugs) and more obscure (non-traditional religious beliefs) consensual crimes, and he is careful to point out that there is a difference between something being negative for the body and something being illegal. A point he continuously stresses is that drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, are not exactly good for the body, but if someone chooses to use them, it should be their choice, provided they don't harm the person or property of another in the process. If this book had been written after the release of the film Minority Report (yes, I'm very aware that it was a story by Phillip K. Dick, but McWilliams used lots of film quotes in the book; he has definitely read a lot, but I don't know how much sci-fi he has read), he could have made a joke about how a common reason given for criminalizing drugs is similar to the idea of pre-crime. People are afraid that people will get hopped up on drugs and commit crimes. To prevent this, we outlaw the substance. But people commit crimes while drunk, and yet alcohol is perfectly legal. Speaking of which, he often points to Prohibition as an example of the worst-case scenario of making a consensual act a crime. Organized crime was a result and people had to drink dangerous liquors, since there was no regulations regarding the purity or proof of the alcohol. He uses a lot of history in the book, tracing the roots of drug laws to racism (opium was criminalized as a way to make life difficult for Chinese immigrants in the 19th century), religion (moralizers like Jerry Falwell make sure that drugs stay illegal, though these people are more concerned with pornography and sodomy) and business decisions (marijuana was hurt because William Randolph Hearst didn't want wood-based paper to go out of business due to competition from hemp-based paper).

McWilliams points out that consensual crimes not only divert police attention from dangerous criminals and hurt people who enter into an activity under their own free will, but keeping activities illegal hurts the economy. When people pay for these goods and services, the money is not taxable (who's going to declare their earnings from prostitution?!), and prices are driven up. If these things were legal, the federal government could work towards eliminating the national debt (though, one must remember that this was published in 1996, before the present... situation).

The book is divided into different sections, and one deals exclusively with the Bible. He criticizes extremist evangelists and challenges the idea that they've ever actually read the book they use to condemn anyone who doesn't think like them. After a while, the section drags on a little, but the information presented in it is extremely useful and enlightening.

The book did raise a few questions for me, mostly in the area of traffic laws. Most traffic laws, such as speed limits, aren't arrestable offenses, but they are still activities that may be considered "consensual crimes". He doesn't address these ever, but I would wonder if opponents of McWilliams could try to discredit him by saying that by his logic, we should abolish traffic laws. The law that he did mention was drunk driving; even though a drunk driver isn't guaranteed to injure someone else, he reasons that the risk is too great to remove the drunk driving laws. To a practical person (I hope), this seems like a good idea, but I wouldn't put it past people to claim that the same logic holds true for drug laws. Unfortunately, this is an extremely complicated debate that probably won't be solved by a single book, no matter how good it is.

Up next: Have a Ball...

Who's Business?

I know that I said that Alan Ball's works would be next. However, I finished up an incredible book yesterday, and I would like to address it now. It will be a single post, that will serve as somewhat of a review of the book, since it is nonfiction.

After that, I will get back on track and begin my post series on American Beauty and Six Feet Under. After that, I will look at the emerging internet series culture by looking at Dr. Horrible (first time after completion) and The Guild.

Up next: The times are a-changin'?

Brian K. Vaughan: Ex Machina

What would happen if a former superhero ran for public office? If it were anything like how Brian K. Vaughan imagined it, said superhero would want to think twice before taking the oath of office. Ex Machina follows Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer who became the superhero known as "The Great Machine" after a strange device on the Brooklyn Bridge exploded. The device gave Hundred the ability to "speak" to machines, allowing him to influence them to do his bidding. He can command complex machines (simple, circuit-less machines, like bows and arrows don't respond); Hundred can change the television channel by asking it, can jam a gun with a yell, and has gained a sort of mastery over engineering (he subsequently built a jet pack and a laser gun).

Hundred spent about a year and a half as the Great Machine, but quickly became disenchanted with the job, since he seemed to do as much damage as he prevented. He is neither muscular nor invulnerable, so being a superhero is a very dangerous job. And in addition to dealing with criminals, he has to avoid the police, who want to arrest him for vigilantism. Unlike Commissioner Gordon of Batman comics, New York Police Department's Commissioner Angotti does not see the Great Machine as a solution to New York's crime problem. Hundred eventually decided to take off the jetpack and run for the position of Mayor of New York. Running as an Independent (woot!), Hundred is initially dead last in the polls until one last job as the Great Machine propels him into the positive side of public sentiment.

Ex Machina takes place in the "real" world; Hundred is the only superhero (though a supervillain eventually came to power) and real-world events come to pass (the 2003 blackout in the Northeast provided the backdrop to one story arc). Of course, due to the events of the series, there are certain divergences in history. The "one last job" was 9/11; after the first plane hit the North Tower, Hundred suited up and stopped United 175 from hitting the second tower.

The narrative begins on Hundred's inauguration day in 2002; as we see his tenure of mayor face numerous trying situations, flashbacks to his time as the Great Machine are juxtaposed to show why Hundred tackles the situation the way he does. His relationship with Angotti, whom he retained as commissioner, is somewhat strained, especially when he uses his powers to prevent an assassination attempt. But his fear to actually suit up and use his powers to fight criminals comes from his experience with an adversary named Pherson.

Reviewers have referred to Ex Machina as "West Wing meets The Rocketeer". I can't fully comment on this, since I've never seen either of those (I know, I know, The West Wing is really good; it's on my list), but the meaning is true. This book interestingly weaves together politics and superheroics; often, the exploits of the Great Machine and the political work of Mitchell Hundred are fairly separate. But the fact that the Machine and Hundred are one person forces him to tie the two together. Since people know that Hundred is the Great Machine, he cannot do anything as the Machine that goes against his politics. Though that would be a bigger problem if he as Hundred didn't have to continually worry about the fallout from the decisions he makes as mayor (such as presiding over a gay marriage).

Ex Machina has a planned ending, but it has not yet reached it yet. I am also behind, since I am a trade-waiter (for non-comic book fans out there, trade paperbacks are the bound collections of issues that are available in mainstream bookstores in addition to comic book stores; people who wait for the trade paperbacks to come out, as opposed to buying individual issues, are known as trade-waiters). Therefore, since I don't have the whole story, I will not go in depth into the book's themes. As of right now, the book seems to be about the political divide in America as well as a realistic look at the superhero genre.

Up next: Back to the real world...