Monday screenings capped with the newest film from writer/director Rodrigo Garcia, MOTHER AND CHILD, a wily and beautifully crafted film about adult relationships that was already praised at last year’s Toronto Film Festival and will be distributed by Sony Pictures Classic. This is grown-up filmmaking at its best.  The Maryland Filmmakers Fellowship (administered by MFF) supported Rodrigo’s first script, THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER, which he brought to Baltimore directly from the  Cannes Film Festival. He also spent time during that trip with students at the School for the Arts.  -Jed

Rodrigo Garcia listening to a question with some of his amazing cast – Naomi Watts, Samuel
L. Jackson, Kerry Washington and Jimmy Smits.

PBS’ consistency is initiated in its relevance to the volume of life. Like the aspect of nostalgia, music also takes an exceptional approach yet the essence of the stars, both above and on Earth, draw us in.

Executive Session – Paula Kerger The President/CEO of PBS revitalized that they are pushing more towards internet and cross program pollination with shows such as “Front Line”. In terms of “American Masters”, they are working on Johnny Carson for the Fall 2010 scheduled to coincide with a new book on him. They will also be airing the Broadway version of Cyrano De Bergerac starring Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner. PBS is also moving further in merchandising through their Discover/Hasbro connection though Kerger says that she is concerned about “the distinction between learning and advertising”.

This Emotional Life PBS is premiering “This Emotional Life” in early 2010 which includes such interviews as Richard Gere, Alanis Morissette and John Leguizamo raised around distinct themes within three two-hour programs, two of which are “negative emotions” and “happiness”. Some of the distinction are made by Dr. Daniel Gilbery who is a Harvard psychologist. He discusses that the single best progression of happiness is social contact and encourages the public discussion of therapy. He believes in shows and media that normalize the aspect of this kind of changing but admits that the film “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” severely hurt the profession while “Good Will Hunting” and “Ordinary People” had a positive effect.

Latin Music USA The essence of the evolution of music within the Latino vision is peppered with spice and rhythm. Narrated by Jimmy Smits, the doc series, Smits believes, will be “a big revelation for the PBS American audience”. In terms of his own love for the music, he says it permeated throughout his career especially involving his move from New York to Puerto Rico. He grew up listing to Three Ocho Pansos which indicated an eclectic musical background which contributed he says to “my all inclusive angle to genres of music”. He says his mom met his dad in NY in one of the clubs playing this music doing the mambo. He says the series “reinforces how we are interconnected” citing that when they talked to Dizzy Gillespie you realize “how latin music inspires you on what jazz could be”.

Musician Bobby Sanabria then got up and started playing the bongos with aplomb running with beats and changing the essences from latin to rock to hip-hop before refracting into a simple African beat. Sanabria relates that every heavy metal guy uses a Latin beat on the heavy drums before referencing that “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones is based on the cha-cha-cha. Every rock club, he continues, was based on The Palladium in NYC which started with mambo. Sanabria explains in his own exceptional way that “alot of Latin music comes from the influence of Arabia since Spain was part of that empire for 800 years”. At this point Sanabria actually demonstrates how Muslim chanting can be based or integrated off the Latin beat.

Adriana Bosch, the series producer, adds that the interrelation of Latin music is all about the intersection of cultures. Emilio Estefan is of Lebanese descent, she explains. Shakira shows up at his studio and she has Lebanese descent as well but with Colombia roots. The influence of this is that, after World War I, a lot of Turks came over to Central America which allowed the ability of Latin music to blend and evolve eventually making its way to the United States.

NOVA: A Last Mission To Hubble This PBS documentary which reflects the Hubble 3D IMAX movie to be released next spring relates the intense work incumbent in repairing this massive telescope in orbit. Astronaut John Grunseld, who related his intense love of digital cameras and electronics, says that all Hubble Missions are difficult. He explains that back in 2002, the director of NASA thought the mission was too risky. However it is a story that has to be told. Grunsfeld says that initially there was a very big possibility that they might not complete the repairs on the gigantic piece adding that “sometimes you spend 12 hours in the pool and you don’t get it done”. He also explained the aspect of having the IMAX camera on the shuttle with them. He said he just flipped a switched to get it rolling inside its compartment but the mystery of how much film rolled still remains elusive. Speaking to him informally after the presentation, the question was when we will see some handheld HD footage from outside the shuttle looking past someone’s feet 100 miles below to earth. Grunsfeld relates that he is a tech head and brings his digital cameras up there with him but that all the liquid has to be removed from the gears in order to blast off in the shuttle. In that perspective, cameras (of a more personal nature) don’t seem to be taken outside the shuttle into the vacuum of space. This would be killer footage but their possibility again remains a mystery clouded under a classified wire. Space tourism will however perceive why in a few years despite Grunsfeld’s obvious enthusiasm despite his NDA.

Playing For Change This series follows the inception of music crossing boundaries in very specific ways in the essence of recording sounds to conceptualize symbiotic and natural similarities in rhythm around the globe. When filmmaker Mark Johnson first approached TV mogul/philanthropist Norman Lear with the idea, Lear said “I was creative enough to recognize a great idea and great execution”. Lear showed the aspect of the music to his friend Bono of U2 who helped bring it together. Using his Concord Music blanket which is compromised of a bunch of different labels, Lear was able to steer the project. He admits that “music is partly what my life is all about now” although he admits that “being an exec producer is how one gets names connected”. Creatively, he says, Johnson is getting the job done and he is just “fanning the embers”. The key he has found in recent years is that “music and laughter are not mutually exclusive” but that “one feeds the other”. He had the company which could help Mark and controlled a relationship with Starbucks which allowed for the music release extension. Lear continues that “the best conversations are all about questions”. This idea, he says, encourages discusssion “beyond the stained glass rhetoric you only hear on Sundays”. The music performers themselves gathered from all over the world, will tour. He sees their tonal creations as “a combination of feelings and melody” because “they have so much talent and so much soul that express a message”.

Lear, when asked to reflect on the incumbent impact of different mediums, says he wonders “if TV reflects or does it lead?” which is the same question he says can be asked of the mass media. He admits that he might never know the answer. One interrogative he states is if Obama caught a wave of a need for effectiveness across the globe as a vessel for change? The further question becomes, within his character, does Obama become that symbol?

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life (P.O.V.) This doc gives a vision of another musical intensive from a quintessential basis of American folklore which has been contained a mystery. Smith, full of smiles, says that she withdrew from the limelight in 1979 to raise her family. When her husband died in 1994, she realized she had to start a new life. She relates about when Bob Dylan asked her to tour with him which was a reflection of a conversation he had shared with Allen Ginsberg who spoke with Dylan about Smith’s faith. She admits that the film, directed by Steven Sebring, is a very accurate portrayal of her between the ages of 50 and 60 including her kids, her peers and her protests of the Bush Administration. She loves rock n’ roll but her close friends know that her favorites are Glenn Gould and Maria Callas. In terms of the subjects covered in the doc, Smith says she never told Sebring what parts of her life to focus on. He simply became part of what they did. He could have gone straight to the rock roots but she explains that “he had no design to which he gravitated towards”. In returning to her lost years, Smith explains that she and her husband moved to Detroit in 79 and lived in its heart at the Book Cadillac Hotel which was still cleaning up from the 68 riots. She loved her husband and considered him a great man. However she couldn’t walk in Detroit like she did in NY so she had to learn to be behind the wheel. She relates that she is in the middle of recording a new album which will have guests like Flea and Lenny Kaye which will be out in February 2010.

When asked about the current state of rock music, Smith relates two angles. She admits that the music “business” is in shambles despite the fact that the state of the talent is fine. However this era is not one of the rock gods. There is no Jim Morrison…Jimi Hendrix…Bob Dylan…or Grace Slick. She says that “rock n’ roll is the people’s cultural voice” which can be “revolutionary”. In terms of technology, she uses You Tube to watch Glenn Gould which is something her kids taught her. She admits to having a taste for Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine as well. In terms of her love of Maria Callas, she likes to study her as a performer in that “the way she delivers an aria” motivates “an inner narrative” that distinctifies “an emotional interpretation”. She says watching Callas build to an emotional peak is like “pissing in a river” because “you have to release at a certain time.” She admits that her voice, like Callas, “is not always perfect”. However she follows this by saying that her voice is much stronger than when it was when she was younger. She cites that Joan Baez, whom we talked to earlier, was “a real singer” with “a voice that was flexible with perfect pitch” while she herself was more a performer. She says that her time in the 60s was “more like a bridge between traditional music in the most revolutionary sense and the punk movement”. Her clan wanted to “remind people of the innate power of it all” and that “it belonged to the people”. She admits that they lost some of the great artists in the 70s and that they thought that “celebrity and drugs would engulf it all”. They wanted “to break through it”. She also says she always thought “they” were like Moses. They could see the ground but relishes that the “next wave of kids made it”. The one progression she admits to being proud of is that she is as loud as some of the major guitar players. She also addresses her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe saying that their relationship as artist and muse was “based on trust…never thought”.

In terms of her sacrifice leaving the public eye, she says that “I am ‘Mom’ first”. She set aside time each day when she retreated from public life to write poetry and songs with her husband but states that she was never bored. She liked to study with a creative impulse saying “it was a nice life”. When she examined her vision of music, she saw some structure through John Coltrane and Roland Kirk’s music. She likes the “idea of improvising and having a base root” but “talking to the stratosphere” while “returning to your root consciousness”. In continuing with an almost psychological base, Smith relates that, in her childhood, her mother was a waitress and her father was a factory worker. She says that they didn’t have alot but they were well loved. Her sense of rebellion in later life had nothing to do with her parents at all. She felt confined by the government, not by her home life. The questions were spiritual but reflected more culturally. They lived in South New Jersey where there was no cultural base. She just felt the need to break out of it,

As Patti sings “The Blackian Years” in essence of her husband followed by “One Common Wire”, the reflection of hope and a wisp of Dylan reflect in the fading of the afternoon.

This past Saturday (1/9/10) I saw the 2009 Tony Award Winning Broadway play “God of Carnage” starring Annie Potts (“Designing Women”/”Any Day Now”), Christine Lahti (“Chicago Hope”), Jimmy Smits (“LA Law”/”NYPD Blue”), and Ken Stott (four-time Olivier-nominated actor). The show centers around two sets of parents who try to find a proper way to resolve the fight between their children that occurred in the school playground. As they try to come up with a proper remedy, the dysfunction of their lives unravel. Annie Potts is making her Broadway debut and what a debut! She steals the spotlight on more than one occasion with her over-the-top, dead on physical comedy. She knows how to take a moment and run with it. Christine Lahti takes a shine as well…perfectly zinging her moments of humorous physicality. Jimmy Smits is great as Annie’s annoying husband who’d rather be on his cell phone than involved in life, while Ken Stott brings his comedic moments via the United Kingdom, with his impeccable body language & facial expressions. The greatest moments come when it’s Annie vs. Christine. The amount of hilariousness that takes place is enough to keep one engaged during what is sometimes a confusing and not always a comprehensive story line. If you’re looking for something a little different to see or if you want to see two great actresses shine like the sun then take yourself down to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in NYC on 45th Street (between Broadway & 8th Avenue).

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning…” - Joseph Priestley

WE ARE LOOKING FOR THE MAGIC, are you?  Our jingle really got in a jangle post-Christmas.  Joyce made all sorts of promises about spontaneous get togethers.  Spontaneity is her forte, you know.   But . . . most of her glamorous promises for fun never materialized.  This can happen with her sometimes and it’s very disappointing.  She blamed it all on the sausage dip.  Sausage dip and cold temperatures which make you want to stay home in your pajamas.  The other disappointment was that Wild Wylo, our brother who is always zesting for life, couldn’t visit after Christmas this year due to his son’s basketball schedule.  Boo hoo hoo on basketball. 

Spike had vacation all week and we didn’t do a damn exciting or adventurous thing because all Bulldog wanted to do was stay home and play with friends.  Dear sweet Joycers, it was a total depressing bust.  We hate to report such news in Joyceland because we are all about fun, friends, food, and more fun–however, even those of us most committed to the Joyce lifestyle fall into dark despair now and again, too.

Hey!!  Happy 2010 to you!  We wish you the magic!  What did we do this past week when we were feeling blue as an overcooked blueberry pie?  We headed out to see the Andy Warhol exhibit!  Nothing will cheer you up more than a little whimsical, crazy old Andy Warhol!  There’s nothing like a nice, big banana . . .

Or Jackie . . .

Or Marilyn . . .

(Bulldog’s favorite Marilyn image is the one in the upper right.  But Bulldog also, when eating a piece of pizza, turns it upside down, puts it on top of his head and shouts, “Party hat.”  You really can’t trust his judgement very much.) 

And the way that crazy Andy Warhol wore his hair!  He liked to wear wigs, you know . . .

And many of his quotes are very Joyce, too.  So much so, that we’ve decided to gain future inspiration from him and induct him into the Joyceland Hall of fame . . .

Three IS a party, Andy!!  After our visit with Andy Warhol’s last decade, Bulldog, Spike and I began discussing Joyceland for 2010.  They both decided they wanted new aliases for the new year.  Fair enough.  When you share secrets with the public about how often one changes his underpants, the very least you can do is let those whose secrets you’re sharing pick their own names. 

So . . . . for 2010, Spike wants to be known as ALEJANDRO.  Yes, we were concerned about Spike’s mental health, too, when we first heard the name, but we’re happy to oblige him . . . so . . . Alejandro, it is. 

The fantasy works for us and at least he didn’t want to be called Fabio.  Bulldog, on the other hand, has decided he’d like to be known as Mister Schwister.  Or Schwister for short. 

So, what do you think?  Because ready or not–it’s 2010–and here we come, with our sordid cast of characters.  Including Joyce who will just remain Joyce.  It’d be difficult to call Joyce by any other name.

Dear Facebook,

We have a love hate relationship, don’t we?  I love logging in and seeing what my friends are up to, the photos they take, the groups they join, the pages they’re fans of, the quiz’s they take and getting messages from my radio friends who should be working but aren’t.  I love posting status messages that have nothing to do with anything for the sole purpose of making people laugh.  I love changing my profile picture because I think I might be slightly ADD.  I enjoy sharing silly videos that are going viral.  I confess that I even love to add people I don’t particularly like because they thought they were hot shit in high school and now they have 6 kids by 6 different dads (or they suspect anyway…paternity tests are pricey).

As much as I love you, I also loathe you.  No, I don’t want to be a fan of “I hate watching a movie with my parents when a sex scene comes on”.  You know what?  I hate that too, I really do.  My parents are huge prudes who fast forward through stuff like that because they’re so uncomfortable.  You know what though?  I don’t need to be a fan of that.  I don’t feel closer to any of the other 890 people who also feel awkward when two people are having sex like it’s the last time anyone will ever be able to do it it, ever, in the history of the world.  Stop suggesting fan pages for me, okay?  I don’t care that one of my friends is a fan of “I’d like to be dead for a day to see people’s reactions”.  You know what?  I might have to unfriend that person for being a complete and total loser.  It amazes me that there are 158, 705 people who would admit that publicly.

On a related note, remember groups?  Those are great if you have a group of people who want to have a place to talk about neat stuff like Illumination (as an example).  I would (and have) joined that group.  Thing is, I don’t want to join a group called “if 1,00o,000 people don’t join we’ll have to start paying for Facebook”. Screw off, you will not.  You know what pays for Facebook?  Ads.  Annoying ads pay for Facebook.

Oh, the ads.  I’m gay, yes.  It’s on my profile, thanks for noticing.  Stop targeting me with your ads for “The Gay Facebook” or “I Killed Jenny” t-shirts or a store where I can buy “clever” hers-and-hers bath towels and pillow shams.  I will never, ever click on your ads or buy anything from you.  No, I won’t be tricked into signing up for junk mail because “hundreds” of companies want to send girls 24-27 free stuff.  Sure they do.

Stop suggesting other languages for me to view Facebook in.  I speak English, I signed up for Facebook in English and all my posts are in English.  What do you mean?  <GASP> I can now view Facebook in Espagnol?  Asombroso!  Admittedly, I loved having my Facebook set to Pirate for a while.  How about a ye olde English setting?  Unless it’s something completely awesome and nerdy, you can fuck right off with your HUGE notices at the top of my homepage about a new language.

This really isn’t your fault but I’m putting it here anyway because you facilitate these people.  Pictures.  Sure, I’d love to see photos of your new kitten, or that trip you took to Germany last week, or that funny picture you found on the interweb.  What I don’t want to see is a photo album brimming with the same fracking picture of you over and over and over.  Here’s you smiling to the left.  Smiling to the right.  You with an unremarkable tree in your yard.  You with a pine cone.  You with a pine cone you say looks a bit like Jimmy Smits.  Fuck off with your pine cone and your 800 photos of you doing absolutely nothing of note.  Don’t make me come down there and crush that pine cone that you now have on a shelf in your room.  I know you have it on a shelf in your room because you took a goddamn photo of it.  Don’t take a picture of it next to a picture of Jimmy Smits.  Didn’t you hear me?  Crush.  Your.  Pine.  Cone.

I love finding out that my friends are in new relationships.  Huzzah for new love and getting laid on a semi/regular basis.  That’s fantastic.  Let’s go for beers and talk about how much you like your new girlfriend or boyfriend.  I’d love to see a cute picture of the two of you together.  I also get that people fight, people breakup, get divorced and people get back together.  What I don’t want to see, in my news feed (in the span of a single day) is “______ is in a ‘it’s complicated’ relationship with _____” followed by “______ is single.” followed by untagging any photos of the two of you together, trash talking your ex up and down about what an asshole/bitch he/she was to you only for you guys to get back together 24 hours later and act like everything is peachy fucking keen.  Over and over and over.  Do you know what I’m thinking when you guys have “broken up” for the 10th time in your 3 month relationship?  You’re not adult enough to be in a relationship and should do the world a favour and never procreate ever, lest you spawn children who are as big (or bigger) drama queens and attention whores than you and your “SO”.  Guess what?  I won’t chime in with your ex-bashing either…because then I have to say something like, “Oh you know when I said James was a ‘total douchebag’ who has ‘never had a single cohesive thought in that thick skull of his’?  I was just joshin’ ya.  He’s smart.”  Don’t make me lie.  I hate doing it.

Speaking of “friends” stop suggesting new friends for me.  I have never spent any amount of time with some 80 year old grannie named “Edna Power”.  I don’t care that someone I once knew 10 years ago is friends with this scary goth chick from some town I might have driven through.  In a snow storm.  As a fetus.  I don’t know her and I don’t want to know her.  Maybe she’s really nice.  Maybe she knows the cure for cancer.  Or maybe she’s the next American Idol.  When she wins and becomes world famous, you can throw it in my face, “Hey Gaynip, remember that scary goth chick you made fun of on your blog while ranting about Facebook?  Yeah, well she’s super famous.  She doesn’t want to be your friend.”  I will eat a slice of humble pie.  Until then, cut it out.

Another thing about this “friends” feature…I don’t need Facebook to tell me to reconnect with so-and-so.  I will talk to whomever I want, whenever I want.  Remember, earlier, when I said there are some people I add (as a guilty pleasure) to see what they’ve been up to since high school.  Like those smug bitchy girls who thought they were the coolest thing since sliced bread?  I added them to see what they were up to now.  6 kids you say?  All by different Dad’s?  Paternity tests are expensive?  Awesome job at Dollarama?  Wow, you were right not to hang out with me in high school…you are clearly much cooler than me.  No, no…Facebook, these people are too cool for me to write on their wall.

Status messages are a great way to find out what friends are up to.  It’s great that you got that new job (or sucks that you got fired, my condolences), I’m proud to find out that you got into college or have a hot date tonight with that trampy chick who works at Starbucks.  Great!  What I don’t give a fuck about is that you’re eating a ham sandwich.  No one cares that you’re eating a sandwich.  Is your life so completely devoid of interest that the best thing to happen to you today is a ham sandwich?  I don’t care if it’s the best ham sandwich ever made.  It’s a sandwich.  It’s right up there with that Jimmy Smits pine cone you’re so proud of (and if you take a picture of the pine cone eating that sandwich, I will bring you harm).

There you have it Facebook.  I needed to get that off my chest.  I do love you, I do.  Don’t cry, baby.  It’s not like that.  You just need to fix a few of these things so I can change our relationship status from “It’s complicated” to “Married to”.

Love somewhat conditionally,

Gaynip

This post contains spoilers of Dexter’s fourth season.

When the third season of Showtime’s hit drama Dexter began in the Fall of 2008, it had already reached its peak. This is not good for any television show to have reached its peak by the end of the second season. The second season concluded with anti-hero Dexter Morgan (Six Feet Under’s Michael C. Hall) eluding capture by the authorities and murdering the only living person who knew his true identity as Miami’s most dangerous serial-killer, dubbed the “Bay-Harbour Butcher”. It seemed there was nothing left for Dexter Morgan – he had outsmarted his greatest threats. Already by the end of the second season, a formula for the program was beginning to show. Dexter would evade someone who threatened his secret and murder the major antagonist of the season. He murdered Lila in the season two finale in the same way he murdered his brother Brian in the finale of season one. Only two years into the series, it already appeared repetitive.

So I released a great sigh of disappointment near the beginning of season three when Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits) learnt Dexter Morgan’s secret. It appeared the cycle was repeating itself. And so it did for the remainder of the season, in an unbelievably mundane fashion. Miguel learnt Dexter’s deepest secrets and so it was no surprise when Dexter killed Miguel in the penultimate episode. The show was on its deathbed, as it appeared like there was no where else to go. It would take a near miracle to save Dexter from the annals of failed television series.

That miracle came in the program’s fourth season. Airing in September 2009, their were many shake-ups that saved the show from an early death. The first was an antagonist superior to Dexter. Did I mean to say equal? No superior is correct, anyone who has watched the season four finale will know that. I do warn anyone who has not watched the fourth season do not read on, as this post will contain spoilers from the fourth season. The Trinity Killer was an intriguing serial killer, played terrifyingly well by John Lithgow. Although Dexter is known for revealing shocking secrets and explosive cliff hangers, this season was full of them. First, Dexter’s accident and his apparent misplacement of a dead body. Then the revelation that Trinity was in fact a family man, not unlike Dexter. It continued that Christine Hill, Quinn’s girlfriend was the daughter of Trinity and the murderer of Agent Lundy (Deadwood’s Keith Carradine) . The season continued with other secrets abound, too many too mention. But the greatest secrets were saved until last. The season finale was undoubtedly the most shocking episode of the series to date. Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) came alarmingly close to finding out Dexter’s secret, stopping when she realised that the Ice Truck Killer was Dexter’s brother. Dexter appeared to brush the “formula” when Dexter finally captured Trinity in the final episode and killed him, like the others before. Unlike the others, Trinity trumped Dexter from beyond the grave. Upon arriving home, Dexter finds his wife Rita (Julie Benz) dead in the bathtub, slain by Trinity. Suddenly the world of Dexter is turned upside down. Rita was one of the few things keeping Dexter human. What will become of Dexter without his main moral compass? More importantly, will Debra continue to probe into Dexter’s past? Furthermore, will Quinn continue down the path of Sergeant Doakes? What the fifth season of Dexter holds is unknown. What I do know is that the season four finale saved the show from death, and has breathed new life into a show that was slowly murdering itself.

WARNING: This post contains massive amounts of spoilers.

Well done, Dexter. You made me eat my words.

All season long, I had been saying that Dexter, while entertaining and still one of the best shows on television, was in danger of growing stale. The show needed to introduce a game-changing twist to enliven the series. Well, they did, and it was devastating.

The final episode was, for most of its duration, more or less what any viewer would have expected: With Dexter’s real identity finally revealed to Trinity, the cat-and-mouse game between the two of them finally turns into an outright chase, with Trinity/Arthur Mitchell trying to escape Miami before Dexter can catch him. Dexter cleverly (and luckily) circumvents many obstacles, ultimately getting Trinity on his table. In their final scene together, Dexter resolves not to be the plague on his family that Arthur Mitchell was.

And then Dexter returned home to find Rita murdered in the bathtub* and, even more disturbingly, his son Harrison sitting in a pool of his mother’s blood, in an almost exact replica of Dexter’s own memory.

*Here’s something that has been nagging me since I saw the finale, cheapening it a little for me: What exactly was Trinity’s motivation for killing Rita? He killed her as he killed his first victim, depicted in the season premiere, but he clearly wasn’t starting a new cycle of kills—he was leaving the city. I can understand why he would want to kill Dexter—who knows his secret and has ruined his life—but why Rita? The only possible answer is emotional cruelty, which doesn’t really fit with the portrait painted of the character. Plus, if he merely wanted to kill someone close to Dexter, then why didn’t he just hang around Debra’s apartment and wait for her to come home? He didn’t even know Dexter was married. I guess the show wants us to believe that Trinity just showed up at Dexter’s house, ready to kill whomever he found. Which, again, rings a little hollow.

This twist was completely unexpected (for me, at least) and, as I said above, devastating. The death of Rita, while sad, was not the truly disheartening element: Rita, while innocent, was always on the verge of being collateral damage to Dexter’s lifestyle, as the illustration of Arthur Mitchell’s family proved. What was truly debilitating was the image of Dexter’s son—a wholly innocent infant—stained with the blood of his mother in the same way Dexter was. Within the context of the show, in which this history was what made Dexter who he is, this is a fate even more depressing than death.

The final scene raises two important questions. The first relates to the past: Can a shocking and disturbing twist ending make a whole season? In general, Season Four of Dexter was much better than Season Three, but it nevertheless followed the same formula. Every season of Dexter, in fact, has followed the same essential formula: Dexter encounters a kindred spirit (the Ice-Truck Killer, Lila, Miguel Prado, Trinity) who he thinks will finally understand the “real” him. After some initial hesitation, the kindred spirit gets Dexter to open up. Ultimately, though, Dexter realizes that this kindred spirit is a monster who must be killed, both because s/he meets his Code and because s/he is a threat to the people Dexter cares about.

Now, this is obviously reductive, and there are elements of nuance within each season. Season One, for example, left open the question of whether or not the Ice-Truck Killer, who turned out to have suffered the same trauma as his brother (!) Dexter, was any worse than Dexter himself. Season Two added the element of a second person, Doakes, who saw the “real Dexter,” and was repulsed by him. Season Three, however, lost any real semblance of moral ambiguity. Miguel Prado went from a normal civilian with a dark thirst for justice, to a monster who had been using Dexter all along. There was no doubt, in the end, as to whether Miguel needed and deserved to be killed. The show even abandoned the idea that Dexter had helped turn him into a monster, basically asserting that Miguel had been evil from the beginning.

Season Four, even with the final scene, bears a much closer resemblance to Season Three than it does to either One or Two. John Lithgow was probably better in his role as Trinity than Jimmy Smits was as Miguel, but it’s close. And the return of Agent Lundy for four episodes was certainly a compelling element (if only because the Deb/Lundy storyline was the best, or least bad, story Deb ever had). But, in general, the Trinity story was similar to the Miguel story. The strain of moral ambiguity introduced in the middle of the season—that Trinity had a family he appeared to love and care for, just as Dexter was beginning to grow attached to his new wife and children—was quickly dispensed with; shortly after the family was introduced, Trinity was revealed to be a terror to them. Unlike Dexter, a model father and husband to any outside observer, Trinity was a monster to those who he purported to love.

Instead of the moral perspective of the first two seasons, then, Season Four was more about the cat-and-mouse game between Dexter and Trinity, just as Season Three boiled down to how Dexter could outsmart Miguel. Dexter has always been great at building suspense and having Dexter find his way out of tricky situations—the scene from the finale in which Dexter has to elude the SWAT team’s storm of the Mitchell home was particularly fun, if pretty much entirely unbelievable*—so the show can still be good while it does this. But it doesn’t have much depth.

*I’m pretty sure forensic analysts aren’t sent in until the SWAT team has completely secured the location. But I’m no criminologist.

So, can one final scene—no matter how heart-wrenching it is—add depth to an entire season that was more or less a thriller? I don’t think so. Maybe it could have if the question of Rita’s death had ever been hinted at. In theory, the entire season was about the possibility of Dexter losing his family, but it was always a more abstract “loss”: that they might discover who he was, or grow tired of his detached emotions. There was never any real threat on their lives. Trinity’s desire to kill Rita was never even implied—his motives remain a mystery even now. This made her death more surprising, but less resonant.

This is probably why the impact of the final scene was more about Harrison in a pool of blood than Rita dead in the tub. The questions and emotions raised by the final scene are almost entirely about the future. This brings us to our second question: Where does the show go from here? The ending, in addition to being gut-wrenching, introduces a lot of possibilities for the show and its main character. The question of fate, always a central question for the show, was raised explicitly by Dexter in the last scene: “It doesn’t matter what I choose, or what I do: I’m what’s wrong.”

Dexter has always been inclined to accept fate, to attribute his “dark passenger” to that seminal moment in his childhood when he saw his mother get hacked to pieces. He hasn’t so much used this an excuse—since he’s never tried to “excuse” his actions—for what he does, but he has used it as a convenient explanation: My mother was cut up, and now I slice people to death. Surely, though, Dexter will be less inclined to accept fate when the person in question is his son. He doesn’t want to curse his son with the same life that he’s had. Nevertheless, this opportunity could put Dexter in the position Harry himself was in during Dexter’s childhood: the watchful guardian of a fundamentally disturbed child. Given Dexter’s coldness toward the memory of Harry since the end of Season Two, though, how he responds to that role is an open question.

Almost easily forgotten—given Dexter’s constant declarations of his own lack of emotion—is how Dexter will respond to the death of his wife. Unlike many viewers, I did not find Rita a constant irritant during this season. Her role as an unknowing interference in Dexter’s secret life was often handled somewhat glibly, but seemed like a natural extension of the story. More importantly, I think the relationship between Dexter and Rita was integral in illustrating to Dexter that normalcy was within his reach. The bond between them—not love, but some mixture of fondness and mutual dependence—is one of the subtler elements of Dexter’s characterization.

So losing Rita will obviously bring an element of darkness and guilt to Dexter’s life. He could respond to this sadness by closing off even the few remaining relationships he has now. This could be both good and bad for the show: On the one hand, Dexter has always been in danger of losing its edge, of making its protagonist too likable to be threatening. Making Dexter pull away from human contact could therefore restore some of the macabre tone the show established in Season One. On the other hand, I worry that this would not lead to anything new. Every season of Dexter thus far has ended with Dexter doubting his own ability to be close to people, and every new season gives him the opportunity to get close to someone new. It’s true Dexter now would be more bloodthirsty and vindictive, but he’s already killed Trinity: Any attempt for vengeance is doomed to fail.

The more interesting way for Dexter to handle his guilt, however, would be for him to try to quash his need for killing. It was, after all, his selfish need to feed his “dark passenger” that ultimately caused Rita’s death and Harrison’s trauma; it would make sense for him to blame this element of his personality for that disaster. This would also allow the show to deal with the question of fate: Could Dexter quit if he wanted to? He and Trinity disagreed over this very question in their final scene together, but that was before Dexter had the motivation he has now.

Ultimately, this finale bears some similarities to last month’s Mad Men finale, capping a by-the-numbers season with a thrilling finale that leaves open so many intriguing possibilities for the next season. I probably have more faith in Mad Men, though, to fulfill these expectations. For one, that show is better executed in general, but also because that finale brought together disparate elements of the season’s plot. Dexter, however, seems to have tacked a twist ending onto a formula. Having taken what one friend described as the “Teri Bauer route,” it will be far too easy for the show to portray Rita’s death as “the cost of doing business,” as 24 viewed Teri’s death. Dexter may become angrier and more withdrawn, but, based on the show’s past, all they need to do is introduce a new slightly-disturbed-but-ultimately-drawn-to-Dexter’s-darkness character to pull him out of his shell.

I hope, however, that the show embraces the new opportunities this twist affords them. Dexter is a show that can carry moral weight and deal with complex ethical questions, even while it maintains a fast-paced, energetic plot. That the final scene of the finale seems to be all anyone is talking about should indicate that these dark elements can take the show from “very good” to “great.” This is the kind of game-changing moment that the show needed; now I just hope that they actually change the game.

Dexter’s 4th season wrapped up this weekend, and while it was a dramatically outstanding season, the show’s excellence also can make it difficult to watch.

I’m going to drop serious spoilerage, so if you haven’t seen the season in its entirety, wait to read this until you do.

This season saw John Lithgow join the cast as the “big bad” serial killer “Trinity”, and Lithgow flexed his dramatic muscles outshining the entire cast.  His blend of do-gooder family man with a malevolent homicidal energy was amazing.  Like Dexter, guided by his “dark passenger”, Trinity’s killing cycle was horrific.  Unlike Dexter, he was reliving his own familial experiences – rather than be moved by them, he repeated them.

All in all, Lithgow was creepy yet charismatic, delightful yet mortifying.  Just a stellar performance that deserves some Emmy love.  I would love to see him cast in a similar, unsympathetic role in another TV show.  Something that allows him to stretch his range as much as this role did.

In the titular role, Michael C. Hall has always blended smarm, humor, pathos, and homicide.  As much as he was matched by Erik King’s Sgt. Doakes in the first two seasons, he was always lacking a true foil.  (Sorry Jimmy Smits, you were fantastic in a very underwritten role that just didn’t have enough to it to really challenge Hall’s Dexter.)  By bringing in Lithgow’s Trinity, not only did Hall have someone to truly match up with dramatically, the characters’ interplay was fascinating.  A long-running serial killer matching emotions with a rising killer was simply startling to watch.

I was never a big fan of Jennifer Carpenter’s Deb Morgan, but this season she delivered a subtly moving performance.  She had bigger dramatic moments than Dexter, from being shot to watching her former lover killed to witnessing a suicide to finding out the origins of her brother’s history (and we can assume the next season will set her more firmly on the path to knowing the truth about her brother).  Carpenter delivered quite well, not just these dramatic moments, but the revelation of her character’s capabilities as a detective was great.  Carpenter gave a good balance of “I really can do this” and “I can’t believe I’m doing this” to the detective work, and it made for a very real character.

Julie Benz, on the other hand, had very little to work with up until the final cliffhanger.  As Morgan’s bride, she became shrewier and shrewier as the season led on, and it was uncomfortable to watch.  Loving Benz since her Angel days, I always found her Rita to be on the annoying side – which I assume was by design.  However, after three seasons of trying to get Dexter to be a true partner, when they were married and he at least seemed committed (in her eyes), she became a stereotypical whiner of a wife.  It was ultimately quite disappointing for both the character and Benz.

However, that disappointment was really a setup for the big shocker at the conclusion of the finale.  Having Rita murdered by Trinity (and realizing it after Dexter does away with his foil) was absolutely devastating.  It was a punch to the gut that I can’t imagine most viewers expected.  While I felt that the writers had to break up Dexter and Rita to maintain some internal tension for Dexter, I figured he would leave her and go off on his own.  I had no inkling that they would kill Rita off and leave Dexter as a single dad.  Of course, watching that moment of revelation by Hall (twice, actually) did parlay what I expect to be a series of wildly divergent possibilities for the character.

The other key actors on the show, Lauren Velez, David Zayas and Desmond Harrington all had their moments as well.  While Harrington’s Quinn is supposed to be the heir to King’s Doakes, he simply doesn’t have that intensity King had, nor is he as imposing as an actor.  Velez’s Laguerta and Zayas’s Batista are an interesting pair.  While I’ve always liked Velez as an actor, she never seems to be given much to do other than be present.  Zayas has shown good range on this show over the seasons, but his absolute shift to loving Laguerta seemed a bit too-McGuffin-esque.

The understated moments with James Remar as Dexter’s adoptive father usually brought a grounding presence to the show, this season they were more of a warning.  Remar always conveyed a sense of concern, and I really wish he had more scenes.  There’s a subtly at work in his performance that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

While I found this season as a whole to be incredibly written, it was difficult to watch, but I always did and will continue to keep watching.  Its simply too complicated to be avoided.

If you haven’t seen “Dexter” on Showtime, you’re missing some quality television viewing. I am not one to sit and watch a lot of tv, but this show has successfully pinned me to my couch for weeks now as my wife & I watch seasons 1-3. We are midway through the 3rd season and the show keeps drawing me in…and tehre are several reasons for that….

10. I believe in the death penalty.
I’ll just leave it at that.

9. Jimmy Smits
He was great in “NYPD Blue” and in the 3rd season of “Dexter” he has been awesome as the one friend that Dexter has who truly understands what he stands for. I don’t know where his plotline is going yet (I’m only 7 episodes in), but I am enjoying his role right now.

8. Jennifer Carpenter
She really IS Dexter’s wife, but on the show she plays his sister and she is one of the best things about the show. She comes across as intelligent & strong, but she has many moments where she is working hard to keep herself composed. All that AND she’s good-looking…

7. The whole cast is awesome!
From the now gone Sgt. James  Doakes to the recently implemented  Detective Quinn, every actor or actress on this show has a defined role and they all make good use of it. My personal favorite? Forensic expert Vince Masuka…who is ALWAYS good for a few awesome explicit jabs.

6. My wife & I BOTH love it!
So our nightly “Dexter” fix is something we do together. And as long as she doesn’t get any ideas from it, it’s a nice way to end the day.

5. The Ice Truck Killer
Best plotline EVER. I was completely blown away by season 1 and I doubt I will ever see anything like it again.

4. Julie Benz is SMOKIN’ hot!
Even my wife agrees with me…with every passing episode she gets even better looking. Seriously…the BEST looking woman on television right now.

3. Michael C. Hall
As the title character, Hall plays Dexter close to the hip. He’s aloof but personable. He’s opinionated but not overbearing. He has direction but it wavers from time to time. He plays Dexter as he should play Dexter…as a man with a hidden agenda. And Hall makes this character one you can believe in…even if he IS hacking people up and stuffing them into trash bags.

2. The writing
Even with the “Harry” storyline growing a little thin (Harry is Dexter’s deceased father who taught him how to hunt & kill his victims), the writers of the show have managed intriguing plot twists and have turned up the heat every season on Dexter, making him squirm when he needs it and letting him breath at just the right time. I’ve enjoyed all the complications of his life and it has made for some very intriguing television.

1. He’s like me
I think the main reason I enjoy watching this show is because a lot of times, except for the homicidal tendencies, I “get” Dexter. He’s a man on his own. He doesn’t really identify with a lot of people. He is inward. He doesn’t like to be bothered with the drama of others. He goes about his life doing his thing and not regretting it. He isn’t trying to fit in and he doesn’t make excuses when he doesn’t. I like that about a person. And I like that about Dexter. He’s not the kind of person that is gonna go out of his way to fit in. Dexter doesn’t see life as a contest…and being the most popular doesn’t interest him. He is trying to keep his life, his ego & id in check and make sure that the people who mean the most to him don’t get hurt. It’s the best part of his character…and he (and this show) is awesome!

FOOTLIGHTS: Last week Vanessa Williams started her fourth season as Ugly Betty’s ever-scheming yet oddly lovable magazine editor Wilhelmina Slater,

WILLIAMS: Sondheim serenader

a roie which has won her three consecutive Emmy Award nominations to date. This week the former Miss America is plotting her return to Broadway with powerhouse Barbara Cook in a new nightly tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Williams starred as the Witch in the 2003 revival of Sondheim’s Into The Woods. “Ugly Betty is my priority,” she says candidly, “and we shoot in the spring — so there are going to be some days that I may not be able to do the Sondheim show. But we’re going to do as much as we can so I can do an eight-show week.” The new musical, Sondheim On

CHENOWITH: Bacharach baby?

Sondheim, will be directed by her Into The Woods champion James Lapine and is scheduled to open early next year … remember Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon in the 1960 Billy Wilder film classic The Apartment? Remember Jerry Orbach and Jill O’Hara in the 1968 Broadway musical version, Promises, Promises? Remember all those hummable Burt Bacharach-Hal David tunes like I’ll Never Fall In Love Again? Word on the Great White Way is that Wicked scene-stealer Kristin Chenowith will return

LAHTI: Carnage

to the New York stage to play opposite Will & Grace funnyman Sean Hayes in a modernized 2010 revival of the hit musical. Stay tuned … and here’s one for the Change Partners & Dance Dept.: A new cast for Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning black comedy God of Carnage will begin performances on November 17 on Broadway. Christine Lahti will replace Marcia Gay Harden; Annie Potts has signed on to replace Hope Davis; Jimmy Smits will replace Jeff Daniels; and original West End cast member Ken Stott will recreate his performance as Michael, replacing James

SMITS: replacing Jeff Daniels

Gandolfini.

FLICKERS: The 10^th annual Planet in Focus film festival, which opened here yesterday, features over 85 films on environmental issues from 25 countries, with pre- and post-screening discussions and panels and special programs for children and schools. A special section of the festival, Land & Conflict screenings, include Canadian premieres of Voices from El Sayed. The 2008 film set in the Bedouin village that is home to the largest community of deaf people in the world; and Jerusalem Moments 2009, a showcase of short films by seven young Palestinian and Israeli directors. To get all the W5, click here … and following a successful pitch at RomaFictionFest, veteran producer Pat Ferns is teaming up with Britain’s Scenario Films to

TOMLIN: class consciousness

develop Shakespeare in Venice, a dramatic series in the tradition of Shakespeare in Love. Based on exhaustive research by Alessandro Bettero, the screenplays will be co-written with award-winning British screenwriter Gareth Jones … and David Cronenberg is set to appear at tonight’s TIFF Cinemateque screening of Videodrome, his prescient 1983 thriller with James Woods, Deborah Harry and Sonja Smits, tonight at 9 pm at the AGO.

QUOTABLE QUOTES: “I lived in a racially diverse and financially diverse neighborhood and I knew who was favored and who wasn’t and who had “nicer” material circumstances and who didn’t. It was the practice at our grade school in those days to stand and tell the class what you’d received for Christmas that year and it was gruesome because it was clear when a kid was lying or exaggerating out of shame, and I can remember being one of them. You might say you’d gotten a sweater and boots and a new coat and all kinds of things that you never showed up in. I can’t imagine what teacher would support such a practice today unless it was used anonymously to raise political and social consciousness and make it an illuminating exercise.”

The speaker? Lily Tomlin, on becoming class conscious at the age of 7.

MAPLE LEAF JOKES? WE’VE GOT A MILLION OF ‘EM!:

Q: What do the Toronto Maple Leafs and possums have in common?
A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.

TOMORROW:

Liz Smith goes on a tear, Jacqueline Bisset goes Italian,

and Ragtime returns to Broadway — without Garth.

-/-

The White House hosted “Fiesta Latina” last night, and were joined by the likes of Gloria Estefan, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Eva Longoria Parker, George Lopez, and Jimmy Smits, among many others.   The event was part of FLOTUS’ musical series.

Button up, Marc. There are children here! (2009 Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

The rhythm is gonna get you! (Getty Images/Pool/Getty Images)

Obama said a few words to the audience, then proceeded to bring the whole family up for some impromptu gettin’ jiggy.  Obama showed marginally more skill than during his infamous Ellen visit.  Could Sasha and Malia be grooming themselves for some tween “Dancing With the Stars?”

There he is!  Its Jimmy Smits.  Its got to be, it looks just like him.  I’m in Vegas at a conference, there is a commotion over by the convention center, and there he is, tall, dark, by my wife’s account handsome…Its got to be him.  She would kill me if I saw Jimmy Smits and didn’t ask him for his autograph.  So I make my way over to the entryway to the convention center to introduce myself like gawkers always do.  As I approach the entry way I notice a sign that says “Welcome American Institute of Insurance Executives”.  Strange, why is Jimmy Smits at an insurance seminar?  No matter I make my way over to him and introduce myself.  Man is my wife going to live vicariously through my connection with the NYPD Blue star!  He says “hi Don nice to meet you, my name is John Smith and I sell insurance in Burlington, Iowa”.  Well that is what I felt like when I drank Newcastle Nut Brown Ale…

Its look writes a check its flavor refuses to cash!  It poured medium colored brown with a creamy head.  So far so good.  It didn’t have a very big nose, but what I could detect was malt and grains.  Good there too.  Then I took a sip and that is where the good times stopped.  Some of you will recall that I was looking for something rich, warm and complex.  This had none of that.  It was just a malt bomb.  That is literally all I could detect from the flavor was a lot of barley malt with a sweet flavor, but no complexity.  The mouth feel was watery and uninspired.  There was no there, there. I kept thinking there was more to this brew that I was missing, so i let it warm up a bit, and still all malt.  It says Serve Cold on the bottle…yeah because it tastes like crap otherwise.

I’m a hop lover, but from time to time I can appreciate a malty brew as long as there is something inspired in the flavor.  Don’t look to Newcastle Nut Brow Ale for any of that inspiration.  This is the Pabst of English brews.

Avoid it!  I am currently in Small town Idaho and I went to the local grocery store to see if they had anything interesting.  This and Guiness Stout was all they could do for me.  I passed on both.  I recommend you do too.

-Don

WASHINGTON, D.C. – “In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina” is a concert hosted by the President and Mrs. Obama on the South Lawn of the White House that will be broadcast by PBS.  The sixty-minute program, to be taped live by WETA Washington, D.C., on October 13, will celebrate Hispanic musical heritage and airs on the final day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, October 15, 2009 at 8 p.m. ET, on PBS stations nationwide.  (Check local listings.)  It will also be broadcast on Telemundo, the American Spanish-language television network, on Sunday, October 18 at 6 p.m. ET, and on V-me, the national Spanish language network partnered with public television, on Friday, December 25.  The program, part of the WETA “In Performance at the White House” series, will include Chicano rock band Los Lobos, Marc Anthony, Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, George Lopez, Thalía, Tito “El Bambino”, and the Bachata music group Aventura, with Sheila E. leading the house band.  Further talent information may be announced in the coming days.

“In Performance at the White House” has been produced by WETA since 1978 and spans every administration since President Carter’s.  The series began with an East Room recital by the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz.  Since then, “In Performance at the White House” has embraced virtually every genre of American performance: pop, country, gospel, jazz, blues, theatre and dance among them.  The series was created to showcase the rich fabric of American culture in the setting of the nation’s most famous home.

The evening concert will be streamed live by the White House on www.WhiteHouse.gov and available to stream on the series website on pbs.org after the broadcast.

Submitted by Madison House Publicity

Performers have been announced for In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina, to air on NPT and PBS stations nationwide on Thursday, October 15 at 9:00 p.m. Central. Welcomed by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month will be co-hosts Eva Longoria Parker, Jimmy Smits and George Lopez along with Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Pete Escovedo, Gloria Estefan, José Feliciano, Thalía, Tito “El Bambino,” the Bachata music group Aventura and the Chicano rock band Los Lobos, with Sheila E. leading the house band.

Prior to its broadcast, the concert will also be webcasted live at http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/ on Tuesday, October 13. Check the site for starting time.

La Casa Blanca

El Presidente Barak Obama anunció para este próximo jueves un concierto especial patrocinado por la Casa Blanca, en donde se presentarán varios artistas latinos, como una forma de honrar a la influencia de esta cultura en los Estados Unidos. Entre los participantes, hay gente como Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Jose Feliciano, Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, George Lopez, Thalia, Los Lobos, Tito “El Bambino” y Aventura. Sheila E. será la anfitriona, y dirigirá la banda principal. El mismo será televisado por PBS el 15 de octubre, y por Telemundo el 18.

Anteriormente, la Casa Blanca había sido anfitriona de recitales de jazz y música country.

Okay, let’s get right to it.  I’m a super-duper big fan of this series.  Season one completely blew my mind, season two was an absolute blast, and I’ve been looking forward to season three for months now.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, I found season three pretty disappointing.  For several reasons, but the primary one, and I’ll just say it flat-out right here so you have time to shake off the shock as you go, was JIMMY SMITS.

Now, Jimmy is an ex-Boyfriend of the Week, so when I heard he was joining the cast this season, I was naturally athrob with anticipation.  But no, no.  No, it simply did not work.   Not workage.  Workage of not.  NON!

As the season opens, Dexter is on the prowl for his next victim, a drug dealer and all-’round bad guy named Freebo.  He gets to Freebo’s house intending to kidnap and then kill him, as per usual, but finds someone else already there trying to do his job for him.  That guy immediately attacks Dexter, and in the process of brawling, Dexter kills HIM.

The next day, he learns the man he’d killed was the brother of District Attorney  Miguel Prado (Jimmy Smits).  Covering his tracks, Dexter casts blame on Freebo, and is then forced to cover THOSE tracks by killing Freebo as well.  But, oh no!  Prado catches him in the act!   Which scares Dexter half to death — until he realizes that Miguel is grateful he’s taken out the man he thought killed his brother.  For a while, the two become friends, but then Prado becomes obsessed with using Dexter to take out other bad people the system is failing to take proper care of.  As that spirals out of control during the season, Dexter is forced to distance himself from Prado.  In what way, I’ll leave for you to discover.

The problem I had with this storyline was that I never really believed Prado’s character’s nonchalance about murder.  Why he might want Freebo dead, I get.  But for him to want some of the other people he puts on Dexter’s hit list taken out implies that he too is a sociopath, really (or at least an acute psychopath — dude, what, like I’m a psychologist?), and that just didn’t feel right or make sense to me.   I sort of blame Jimmy’s acting skills for that, too.  Though I can’t tell you specifically what it was that struck me as off about it.

Of course, Dexter’s sense of relief at finally meeting someone who seems to understand him only furthered my theory that he’s not a real sociopath — that he thinks he is, that he was raised to believe he was, but that he is actually not.  (For more on this theory, see reviews of Season One and Season Two, both of which are now available for Watch Now at Netflix, by the way.)  Because, tell me this, would a real sociopath care about being  understood?  Feel a sense of relief upon finding someone who gets him?  Hell, I’m not even a sociopath myself and half the time I don’t give a good goddamn.

Anyway, I’m a little uneasy about the introduction of a BABY to all this as well (no offense to babies, but: blah).  And though I love Jennifer Carpenter’s character (Dexter’s sister), they’re not using her correctly either.   Unless this series truly is headed in the direction of uncovering a much more complex psychology for Dexter, it’s just not going to work for me much longer.  It’s too easy.  It’s chicken (no offense to chicken, but: bwak! bwak!).  No, sir, no good.

[Netflix me (if you insist) | Buy me (what are you, mad?  I said no good!)]

Genre:  Drama
Cast:  Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Carpenter

Jimmy Smits

Este cara foi o responsável por me fazer assistir Cane inteira. É por causa dele que vou insistir em assistir Dexter, apesar do rumo que a série começou a tomar na segunda temporada.

Jimmy Smits, luv you, xuxu.

* Agradecimentos especiais à Suzana que enviou a imagem: senquis, frô!

Post relacionado
Troféu PdUBT Emmy 2009

Y una vez más Dexter se queda sin premio… lamentablemente este año tampoco pudo ser. Recordemos que las nominaciones eran para Michael C. Hall, Jimmy Smits y Dexter, pero lamentablemente no ganaron ningún premio. Veamos la lista de nominados y por supuesto los ganadores en las respectivas categorías a las que estaban nominados cada uno:

Mejor serie de drama:

• Big Love
• Breaking Bad
• Damages
• Dexter
• House
• Lost
• Mad Men – Ganador

Mejor actor de drama:

• Simon Baker (The Mentalist)
• Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)
• Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) – Ganador
• Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
• Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
• Hugh Laurie (House)

Mejor actor invitado en drama:

• Edward Asner (CSI: NY)
• Ted Danson (Damages)
• Ernest Borgnine (ER)
• Michael J. Fox (Rescue Me) – Ganador
• Jimmy Smits (Dexter)

Increíblemente (para mí al menos), es la primera vez que apuesto a algún actor y es el que se queda con el premio, como es el caso de Bryan Cranston de Breaking Bad. El tipo lo tiene bien merecido, es un actorazo, y también una serie de puta madre.

Tendremos que esperar al año que viene para ver si le dan a Dexter otra oportunidad, pero aunque a muchos no les guste, espero que sea la última, porque si alargan la serie por más de cinco temporadas, creo que van a terminar arruinando una de los mejores shows del momento.

Pueden ver la lista completa de nominaciones y ganadores en TVGuide.

Showtime estuvo celebrando ayer una fiesta previa a los premios Emmy 2009 donde estuvo el reparto de Dexter, y también asistieron varios de los actores de las series que tiene la cadena actualmente al aire. Además, Jennifer Carpenter y Julie Benz asistieron hace un par de días a una fiesta (también con motivo de los Emmy) que bindaron Entertainment Weekly y Women In Film, por supuesto también tenemos fotografías del evento.

Galería

*Actualizado: nuevas fotografías de la fiesta*

Recuerden que esta noche tendrá lugar la ceremonia de la entrega de premios, que se podrá ver en directo por Sony en Latinoamérica a partir de las 19:00 P.M.

Pronto tendremos fotos del evento. ¡Estén atentos!

Vía | Showtime Fan – MCH

Shakira at the 2008 ALMA Awards

Eva Longoria Parker and George Lopez  will host the ALMA Awards with an all-star lineup of guests. International singing artist, Shakira,  will perform and Salma Hayek, Oscar de la Hoya and the late Ricardo Montalban will be honored on “The 2009 ALMA Awards,” to be telecast Friday, September 18  on ABC. Also scheduled to perform are David Archuleta, Nelly Furtado, Sean Kingston and Pitbull.

Among the highlights of the ceremony, “The 2009 ALMA Awards” will bestow special honors upon two Latino superstars, actor/producer Salma Hayek and boxer/philanthropist Oscar de la Hoya, as well as host a special tribute to the late Ricardo Montalban — who passed away earlier this year — led by Oscar, Grammy, Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress Rita Moreno.

Celebrity appearances include Antonio Banderas, Jimmy Smits, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Jake T. Austin, Benjamin Bratt, Jordana Brewster, JoAnna Garcia, Selena Gomez, Eva La Rue, Jesse Metcalfe, Enrique Murciano, Amaury Nolasco, Oscar Nunez, Soledad O’Brien, Dania Ramirez, Efren Ramirez, James Roday, Michelle Rodriguez, Adam Rodriguez, Roselyn Sanchez, Nadine Velazquez, Lauren Velez, Sofia Vergara, Kat Von D and Rainn Wilson.

The show will focus on “Year in Review” categories in film, television and music. New categories have also been added to recognize the influence of special segments of the entertainment industry that are shaping positive perceptions of the Latino community, such as emerging young talent (under 18), talent behind the scenes who make the on-screen magic happen, and a sports category in acknowledgment of the increasing integration of the worlds of sports and entertainment.

Dexter marathon completed. I LOL’d hard when I watched this.

“Dexter” -

 For the 2nd year in a row, “Dexter” snagged nominations for both Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Michael C. Hall. This year it also scored a 3rd nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Jimmy Smits’ fine performance as Miguel Prado.

 “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” -

 In one of the funest nominations in television history, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” scored a nomination for its work as an internet original creation in the category of Outstanding Special Class – Short Format Live Action Entertainment Programs. It is a remarkable achievement for what is essentially a film that was created for internet distribution to have garnered a television award nomination. And if this internet phenomenon has eluded your finely tuned TV/entertainment radar, then by all means, get the DVD and check it out. It will be worth every penny. (All puns intended.)

 “Friday Night Lights” –

 For the 3rd consecutive year, “Friday Night Lights” scored yet another nomination for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series. Having won this Emmy in 2007, it is still a remarkable achievement for it to get the same award nomination year after year. Kudos to the show’s casting directors who are obviously doing a hell of a job!

 “Fringe” -

Also coming off a successful freshman year, “Fringe” has scored a nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series for its pilot episode. “Fringe” is an off-beat sci-fi show with quirky humor and some truly stunning visual effects.

“Grey’s Anatomy” -

Another highly successful TV show that remains popular viewers, but which seems to have fallen from favor from the Emmy voters. “Grey’s Anatomy” still managed to eek out 6 Emmy nominations for:

(1) Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Sandra Oh)

(2) Outstanding Support Actress in a Drama Series (Chandra Wilson)

(3) Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Sharon Lawrence)

(4) Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (for the episode “Dream a Little Dream of Me”)

(5) Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series (for the episode “Stand By Me”)

Sandra Oh has been nominated 5 times for her brilliant performance as Cristina Yang on “Grey’s Anatomy” and Chandra Wilson has received her 4th consecutive nomination for her equally astounding performance as Miranda Bailey.

“Heroes” -

Despite receiving 8 Emmy nominations in 2007 after its debut year, “Heroes” has struggled to find its creative edge in subsequent years, with only 3 nominations last year and 2 this year for:

(1) Outstanding Art Direction for a Single Camera Series (for the episode “Cold Snap”)

(2) Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series (for the episode “The Butterfly Effect”)

While its storyline may meander quite a bit over the course of a season, the show’s creative vision and dedication to superior craftsmanship does not. Each episode feels lovingly sculpted.

“House” -

Receiving its 4th consecutive nomination for Outstanding Drama Series and 4th nomination for Hugh Laurie in the a category Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, “House” remains a critical darling and immensely popular TV show around the globe. Typically, it also received nominations for its remarkable direction and storytelling, but this year, it was instead recognized and nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama for the episode “House Divided.” While the nominations are cool for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Drama Series, these categories are the most competitive and scoring a win has so far eluded the show. But with rumors of both “Lost” and “24″ ending this next season, “House” stands a chance of stepping outside of their long shadows.

“Legend of the Seeker” -

Also fresh off its debut season, “Legend of the Seeker” managed to startle everyone and nabbed an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode “Prophecy.” It is truly a wondrous achievement for a show that is not well known to beat out the competition for this nomination.

“Lie to Me” -

Another smash hit right out of the gate, “Lie to Me” has raised eyebrows and attention with its nomination for an Emmy in the category Outstanding Main Title Design. This will be a show to watch this next season as it stretches its creative legs.

“Life on Mars” -

Hardly seen as it was abruptly cancelled during its freshman run, “Life on Mars” still snagged a nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a One Hour Series for the episode “Out Here in the Fields.” For those of you who blinked and missed it, be sure to check out the DVD box set which will be released on October 5th. It definitely is worth your time.

“Lost” -

In 2005, “Lost” received 12 Emmy nominations and took home 6 of them, including Outstanding Drama Series. Ever since, it has remained an Emmy darling receiving 9 Emmy nominations in 2006, 6 Emmy nominations in 2007, and 8 Emmy nominations in 2008 — and 2009 is no different as it scored 5 nominations, 3 for its jaw-dropping season finale “The Incident”. This year’s nominations include:

(1) Outstanding Drama Series

(2) Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

(3) Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Michael Emerson)

(4) Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series

(5) Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama

Raising the stakes as it races towards its series finale next year, “Lost” continues to surprise, dazzle and confound us all. It is a gift to the television audience that I am not sure it fully appreciates.