Well, dear readers, I simply must inhabit a different planet than most people. I say this because yesterday I watched most of what I believe is these days called a TV series. Now, I don’t profess to have any idea what TV actually is these days, what with a thousand channels and Hulu and Vudu and Amazon and DirecTV – I mean, who can keep track of all this stuff? Who has time to watch all this stuff? It was, for me, better before, with, you know, nine channels – easy to choose, series ran twenty-three or whatever episodes, we didn’t have one story line for an entire season and sometimes into two or three seasons. I’ve enjoyed some of this new-fangled stuff, sure, but I can’t invest in more than one or two. So, yesterday I watched something, a series, called American Crime Story. I gather that each “season” will be a different true-life crime. This one is The People vs. OJ Simpson. This “season” lasts ten episodes. In other words, they call this a series but it’s really a miniseries. Now, this thing got raves, it’s up for Emmys galore and I sat on my couch like so much fish and thought, “Why?” I mean, this happened twenty-two years ago and anyone who was around in 1994 remembers every second of it. This is based on some book, but a book by a journalist, not anyone who was actually connected to the thing.
Everything I read about this “series” led me to believe I’d be seeing riveting television, brilliantly written, directed, and acted. So, imagine my surprise when confronted with simply awful writing, sometimes verging on parody in the first two episodes (all the stuff about the Kardashian children – I mean, really BAD writing). And then there was the directing – now, it’s not all one writing team or one director, but clearly there is one person behind the “look” and “style” of it, and I have to believe that person is the person who directed several of the episodes, is the main producer, and whose series this is (the same person whose other series has the similar title of American Horror Story – that’s how original this is), and the same guy who did Glee, and yes, I know I was one of the only people who could not get beyond one episode of that show. Well, here is, to me, what makes a good director – put the camera down and tell the story. Don’t make it about the newest electronic camera crane shots, don’t make it about YOU, you make it about the story. Did Hitchcock have a style? Of course. But his style was not intrusive or invasive and it was all in service of the story. John Ford didn’t need camera cranes or slow motion or constantly moving camera for no reason. He put his camera in the right place and shot the damn scene. The guy whose “style” is present in this show does everything he can to keep the camera in constant movement, sometimes smoothly, sometimes shaky-cam style, but the one thing he doesn’t and can’t do is put the damn camera down and tell the damn story. Every shot seems to begin with a movement and one of those “whoosh” sounds, sometimes the camera will dolly in quickly to some people walking towards it only to retreat as they continue walking forward – it makes no visual sense at all. I find it maddening.
And then there are the actors. Some are excellent, like Sarah Paulson, who channels Marcia Clark very well, and Courtney Vance, who channels Johnnie Cochran very well and especially the fellow who plays Judge Ito. But Cuba Gooding, Jr? I don’t know who he’s channeling but it’s not the OJ Simpson I watched during the trial. Nathan Lane seems odd to me as F. Lee Bailey, but nothing is quite as odd as John Travolta as Robert Shapiro – it’s certainly one of the oddest performances I’ve seen, and yet it’s somehow of a piece with all his recent work. Some other actors are fine, but an equal number are strictly from amateursville, and I find that shocking. And the music – some of the most annoying placement of songs ever, and the score is just one of those droning things that feels like you’re sucking on a grapefruit soaked in vinegar. Of course you watch it all the way through and are reminded how the real deal was the real must-see TV. All the key moments are here, of course, but we also get the backstage stuff, but I’m not sure if all of that is true or someone’s imaginings of truth. But, again, I must be in a tiny minority because if you read the reviews you’d think this thing was the greatest series in history. On the imdb, raves galore, except for all those pesky bad reviews that accuse the good reviews of being shills. And what’s funny about that is that when you read a lot of the good ones they all sound like they’re from the same script. Odd. I will say the final three or four episodes are better – the first two are the worst. The later ones remind you how compelling this was, how manipulative the defense was, and how many mistakes the prosecution made. Anyway, I was kind of looking forward to it, but was disappointed – I don’t want to dissuade anyone from watching it, after all it might be a curio for the curious and I only offer one BK’s opinion.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, yesterday was yet another weird little day. I didn’t quite get eight hours of sleep, and was gone for a bunch of the day doing things, including having a chili, cheese, and onion omelet, a few fries, and an English muffin, picking up one package, and going and doing and doing and going. By the end of last night, we were at 38% in the Indiegogo campaign, which is the highest percentage that quickly of all the campaigns I’ve done. I’m sure it will now just go up in dribs and drabs and then hopefully at the end when I add some new perks, it will go all the way and hopefully beyond. I got a tiny bit of prosciutto and some melon balls for my evening snack. And I had a really fascinating telephonic call about something that will possibly happen next Wednesday morning. I can’t mention what it is yet, but I got hold of everyone who’d need to be involved and it seems like it can work if all the things that have to align do.
Today, I have still to finish casting the October Kritzerland show so I can finish choosing the songs, and I have two sets of liner notes to write. I’m sure I’ll eat something, I’m sure I’ll jog, and I’ll hopefully pick up some packages.
Tomorrow is more of the same, and then next week could end up being VERY busy depending on how everything goes.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, go and do, eat, jog, hopefully pick up packages, cast, choose songs, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite true crime stories, plays, movies, and TV? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, bored of this new-fangled world of television.