Analysis
Deeper pieces that may touch on a variety of television shows and the business in general.
So! Battlestar Galactica: what should we talk about? Hmmm… How about the new Gaeta-based webisodes that kicked off last Friday? (Blood! Drugs! Interdepartmental kissing! Lost in space!) Or the cryptically irritating teasers that Sci Fi is doling out, web-wise, and those new Angry Adama promos? Or the baffling Starbuck’s Boobs poster that just popped onto the radar? Or how about the final half of the final season starting in less than six weeks, and the fact that we’ve been waiting since JUNE 14 TO GET THE FRAK ON WITH IT?
Actually we are going to talk about my favorite character, who is of course Lee “Formerly Apollo” Adama, that wearer of cheekbones, expertly mussed hair, and pinstripe suit. Oops! Just kidding: I hate Lee. What a whiny, self-righteous, goody-two-shoes blowhard. He can’t out himself as the last Cylon soon enough for me, because maybe then he will finally get what’s coming to him, which is a Microsoft Zune. Either that or Starbuck and Dualla kicking him around in the towel area, just for being such a wiener. (And I just made a whole bunch of instant best friends with that angry little fake spoiler/scary feminist rant, didn’t I? But this is the way of things. Also, I think it’s best to lay my oddball likes, dislikes, and stylistic writing tics out here in the beginning, because ultimately it will save us all a lot of time.)
Sure People magazine called Hugh Laurie one of the world’s sexiest men. And yes, millions of women tune in each week to catch a glimpse of the smoldering curmudgeon. But Fox Network’s House is a delight for the eyes in more ways than watching beautiful doctors heal the sick and play god. One of my favorite reasons to watch House is the artistic camera shots and special effects, making it more than just a TV show, elevating it to the artful.
Last night’s episode (#507, The Itch) opened with the weaving and bobbing of the camera, which persisted on and off throughout the show, depicting the confusion, inner turmoil and disorientation of the agoraphobic patient that forced House to move his surgical team offsite. This move to an offsite location is yet another way the writers try to shake things up for viewers. We know the basic formula for every House show. Patient gets sick with some mysterious disease. House and Co. make a few erroneous guesses and the patient alternates between getting better and getting worse. Then, finally inspiration hits House. He pieces together the mystery, the patient is cured and House saves the day. If, week in and week out this was all to be enjoyed in House, things would get boring quick. But House is driven by its characters and our desire to see him interact with his staff, Cuddy and Wilson, not to see a patient cured each week.
In this, the producers, directors and writers get it right. Mix up the basic formula but pull us in each week to see House struggle with his own demons, terrorize and abuse people and conflict with his inner teddy bear. And it doesn’t hurt that he is so darn adorable to watch struggling, either.
A few months back I watched the pre-air for ABC’s first attempt at translating Life on Mars to our shores. It was a rough experience, mildly ameliorated by the participation of Colm Meany and the lovely Rachelle Lefevre. My feeling at the time was that Jason O’Mara - another in the long line of British Empire expats clogging up our airwaves - was a black hole from which not even the charisma of those around him could escape. My first thought was that he was too focused on his ‘R’s to worry about acting, but Ireland’s mostly rhotic. Some other complexity of the Amercan accent, then.
Seriously. He was bad. It didn’t help that I was comparing him to John Simm who brought a lot of intelligence and wit to to his original version of the character. It helped him even less that Meany played Gene Hunt much quieter and calmer than Philip Glenister and still blew O’Mara off the screen.
So when LoM was retooled I figured for sure O’Mara was going to get tossed aside for an American who could really sink his teeth into the character and stand up alongside a great character actor like–
Oh. Everyone and everything else was tossed? Meany, Lefevre, David E. Kelley? Gone. The LA setting? Gone. But Jason O’Mara and his leather jacket stayed.
