Author: Jhoana Cooper
Source: articlesbase.com

There are several reasons on why you should buy any DVD collection. Putting aside money considerations, you always have that certain trait in you which longs to acquire, dvd,, dvd, items which will give you utmost pleasure. The Shield DVD collection is one of the extraordinary finds in the market. The Shield TV series is found in the 23 DVDs of this package. A total, dvd,, dvd, of 75 uncut episodes is up for the grabs in this minute package. Apart from these compelling ideas, you should get this DVD for the following causes:The story of The Shield has its own lessons to deliver to you as an audience. An account of what transpires in the crime scene, this TV series once showcased the differences between good, dvd, and bad cops. You will see what tears these people apart in making decisions to be true to their jobs. You will also learn to understand why things turn out to be, dvd, on the, dvd, negative side for police officers. With The Shield DVD collection, you will, dvd, certainly get the comprehensive details of what transpires in the world, dvd, of our either dedicated or greedy cops.The Shield DVD collection is utterly popular to a lot of viewers. In getting your own set, you will appreciate why the public had gone gaga over this TV series. Much more than what the story tells,, dvd, you also get to express your own opinions on how detectives and cops run their own thing. You may react to the certain twists in the justice system. The thickening of the plot invites more patrons to watch The Shield. This is perhaps one of the reasons why it lasted a very long six seasons of airtime.To convince you even more, a lot of audio visual businesses offer the product at a very low cost. The instant savings you get just by purchasing, dvd, The Shield DVD, dvd, collection may just entice you to get more copies which you may give as presents to friends who want to have their own The Shield DVDs. Buying in bulk also awards you the chance to save more on the shipping cost of the item. From the humble beginnings of this TV show up to its end, you will definitely,, dvd, dvd, say that you have paid for the right product.Getting The Shield DVD collection at a low, dvd, price may only be a chance of a lifetime. What may be true to its pricing now may no longer work in the near future. If you want to take advantage of the offer of online shops, well you must order The Shield DVD immediately. Otherwise, you may just wait for the next great deals to come with the product. This means you may, dvd, need to extend your patience for several months or even years to get it at a discounted price.Whatever your reasons are for acquiring The Shield DVD collection, what matters is that you feel gratified with the purchase. If you will be encountering problems with how the product functioned for your viewing preference, well you, dvd, must be able to consult your service provider about it. The Shield complete season is a rare find in the market. Even if the best names in the marketing industry,, dvd, dvd, offers, dvd, it, you may not get it at the same cost offered by several online shops. Be a very wise buyer if you want a DVD collection such as this one.

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‘Lie to Me’ recebeu o sinal verde da Fox e terá uma temporada completa. A emissora encomendou nove novos episódios do drama, garantindo assim uma demanda completa de 22 episódios.

A série teve mudanças nas últimas semanas, com Shawn Ryan (criador de ‘The Shield’) assumindo o programa como showrunner. Desde então, a série não mudou muito seus números, mas o último episódio foi positivo, já que ‘Lie’ foi capaz de reter 60% da audiência seu lead-in, no caso, ‘House’.

The Shield #3
Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Greg Scott

The Shield’s first storyline comes to a close and it perfectly shows why already he is a better character then Magog in the last page alone. He is a hero – and Magog is a douche with horns. When I found out that the creepy tentacle-headed guy was called the Brain Emperor I looked it up and sure enough he was a villain from The Shield’s days at Archie Comics – I like that they are not only reintroducing the heroes but the villains and everything that comes with it. The Inferno back-up is decent, still not a fan of the art though.

Y es que la cuarta entrega de la trilogía iniciada por Len Wiseman en el 2003 que enfrentaba a vampiros y hombres lobo, muy de moda últimamente por razones distintas y que todos conocemos, ya tiene un guionista asignado.

El seleccionado es John Hlavin, famoso por su trabajo en la serie televisiva “The Shield”.

El propio guionista ha comentado cosas como que no será una precuela ni nada de rehacer las películas anteriores y que están introduciendo elementos nuevos y frescos que harán las delicias de los fans y de la gente no familiarizada con la franquicia.

Del director y protagonistas del film aun no se sabe nada, lo que si sabemos que el anteriormente citado Len Wiseman, repetirá las labores de productor como ya hiciera en “Underworld: La Rebelion de los Licántropos”.

A 4th UNDERWORLD Movie Is Getting The Greenlight After The Strong Performance Of 'UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS'

THE SHIELD was THRALL WORLD’s best television experience EVER (narrowly edging out BABYLON 5) and the writing was MINT.

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Just got finished watching tonight’s episode of “FlashForward.”

For anyone suffering from “Lost” withdrawal and weekly watercooler conversations about the meaning of the Dharma Initiative and John Locke’s miraculous resurrection, FF offers a fix that will get you through the rough patch.

It has an interesting and ever-deepening mythology; pacing that continually moves the story toward a future that may or may not be set in stone; and an often strained American accent by Joseph Fiennes.

But what I really love about the show is the use of music — from a Bjork tune played over a gorgeous shot of park dwellers slipping into their 137-second glimpse of their future, to tonight’s montage set to a live version of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm” and moments in recent weeks backed by Pearl Jam, Rufus Wainwright and the Rolling Stones. Whoever is in charge of the music is doing a masterful job in selecting tracks that offer maximum impact at a given moment.

That’s also one of the many reasons I miss “The Shield.” (If you know what’s coming next for poor Lem, the music and that last shot of Shane Vendrell is enough to give you goosebumps.)

S.W.O.R.D. #1

Twice last week, Marvel surprised me.  Perhaps they’re now making a concentrated effort to get out of the self-destructive, obsessively grim ‘n gritty cloud that they’ve been desperately living under in recent years, but, much like Strange, S.W.O.R.D. #1 is a surprisingly light-hearted adventure with a solid creative team, a cartoonish tone and a strong sense of the bizarre.  Following the adventures of Abigail Brand as she juggles new obstacles from Osborn with hectic space adventures, writer Kieron Gillen quickly introduces readers to the important cast-members, making each distinct and lively without stealing too many pages from the narrative itself.

Steven Sanders’ energetic art is well-matched by Gillen as he draws a bizarre assortment of alien entities with verve, if not with a particularly memorable sense of design aesthetics.  The pair introduce a large cast, but they do so entertainingly.  Like Strange, the book is not without its flaws, but, like Strange, it is nonetheless an engaging, fun read that offers a reminder of just how expansive, and how weird, the Marvel Universe can be.

Grade: B+

The Shield #3

Trautmann’s opening issue of The Shield impressed me.  It seemed like it might be a fitting successor to the action-espionage tradition that DC lost when they cancelled Checkmate (or rather, when they gave Checkmate to Bruce Jones) and Marvel lost when they put the two least subtle human beings on the planet, Bendis and Millar, in charge of their world-building.  But while Trautmann is hardly a novice at comics anymore, The Shield #3 displayed what looks like a surprising lack of confidence, despite still-excellent characterization and a good use of the arc’s guest star, Magog.

The back-up feature remains relatively forgettable, which was less of an issue when the main story seemed so promising.  Jerwa and Scott are hardly turning in bad work, but it doesn’t particularly fit, tonally or thematically, with the book to which their back-up is attached, a bad sign for the book’s consistency (and sales).  With one arc completed in the main feature, the book’s grace period is over.

Grade: C+

- Cal Cleary

Read/RANT

[Before I go any further, a strong word of warning. This post will discuss a LOT of things that happen in the third season of Mad Men. The whole post is one big, throbbing spoiler, so if you're not up to date with the show and wish to remain unspoiled, please go no further. I won't even put a spoiler picture from the season up this high, just in case an image is enough to wreck things. I'll put a generic one here instead. One from last season, with Joan and Sal, my favourite characters.

That's the stuff. Now, on with the spoiling!]

I could kick Matthew Weiner in the shin. Throughout the third season of Mad Men I have mocked online commentators for bitching about the pace, a complaint voiced so often that it began to seem like an official comment from God or Crom or something. It’s the same sort of received wisdom as “The Lost showrunners are making it up as they go along,” or “Dexter is just so deep and morally complex”. Raging in my seat like an affronted parent watching their child’s behaviour be picked apart by snarky assholes, I shrieked “Too slow? But in this episode Betty met up with a guy in a diner and then came home. And Don was mean to Sal! That shit is seismic!” After a debut season of crashing unsubtlety, the torrential flow of information about Mad Men’s characters became a dripping tap of clues, vague hints, and ambiguous behaviours. To any viewer who loves to patiently pan for gold (Lost fans have become experts at this), Mad Men’s third season was, for the most part, a gift.

And then Matthew Weiner comes along and gives us a final episode that — compared to the rest of the season — races forward, hurlings big events at us, all with the cool style of Lewis Milestone’s original Ocean’s Eleven, though with none of the smug tedium. Season three had seemed to be a delicately paced conundrum, but in fact was a set-up for a gargantuan upheaval played out like a rebirth for a group of characters who appeared to have hit an emotional and psychic dead-end. Coming from a showrunner who has, in the past, talked about how organic his writing is and how he doesn’t think in terms of season arcs, this fake-out was just as beautifully played as the sneaky tricks played in the formation of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.

Who would have believed that a season of such depressing revelations and upsetting events would pave the way for the thrilling and utterly satisfying final episode? Most notably, this season had seen anti-hero Don Draper brought low by his own existential panic. The first episode of the season shows a relatively happy Don, excited about the birth of his new child, unusually attentive to his wife Betty, mostly uninterested in continuing his philandering, and considerate of Sal’s homosexuality (the “Limit Your Exposure” line being one of the highlights of the season). Yes, Don still ends up in bed with another woman (flight attendant — or should I say stewardess — Shelley), but her pursuit of a disinterested Don is relentless, and he almost seems to be trying to get away from her for much of the scene. As she is not an equal for him — like Rachel Menken or Midge Daniels — he orders her around, obviously bored by her playful attempts to excite him.

Compare that to episode 9 — Wee Small Hours — with Don’s regretting his decision to sign a contract that leaves him even more mired in the petty politics of his office. His frustration boils over as he angrily fires Sal for an act of self-preservation that jeopardises the firm…

…and then father-surrogate Connie Hilton rejects his big pitch (with the heartbreaking line, “What do you want from me? Love?”). His job, his lifestyle, and a truly meaningful and fulfilling relationship all in doubt, Don’s old habits rear up as he chases teacher Suzanne Farrell, aggressively and testily flirting with her until she surrenders to him. In a season where he seems to fall into both good and bad luck without expending much effort, this unusually desperate move stands out, but as his life revolves around keeping an exit strategy at hand, it’s understandable that this symbolic escape — which has helped him forget his troubles and feel free — would appeal to him so much.

Though his connection to Suzanne seems as honest as his previous dalliances with confident brunettes (who are obviously his type), Don’s panic is only temporarily held at bay. When Betty finally discovers his birth name and Don unburdens himself to her, the collapse of his marriage sends him into such a tailspin that he barely even registers the assassination of JFK. As everyone else responds with shock and sadness to this event, Don skulks around as if looking for someone to blame for revealing his secret. As he was the fool who kept mementos of his former life in a drawer in his office, perhaps he wanted to be found out. The cost to him is his marriage, as Betty takes this long-time betrayal as the perfect excuse to jump out of one marriage and into another. Funnily enough, her new love — political adviser Henry Francis — is as much a father figure for Betty as Connie is for Don. Though Don’s relationship with Connie slowly disintegrates as he fails to live up to his impossible standards (Don literally fails to provide his deranged employer the moon), Betty gets her man by playing hard to get.

In the final episode of the season, Don is given a chance to reclaim something of himself. In previous seasons it always looked like Don would thrive in the 60s. Though he has the look of the stereotypical Brylcreemed businessman, with a glass of Scotch and a teeny-tiny cigarette (are they filterless? Is it a Lucky Strike?), Don has seemed to be a secret bohemian, responding to poetry, foreign cinema, and jazz. There has been evidence that he values the opinions of ethnic minorities, women, and homosexuals, three groups that are about to fight back against the oppressive mores of Sixties America. In the third season this beatnik streak seems to vanish as he is hemmed in by responsibilities he had previously been able to avoid. He treats Peggy and Sal — two people he had seemed willing to mentor in the past, as much as someone as solitary as Don would ever mentor anyone — with disdain and disrespect, with the consequence that Sal vanishes from Don’s life entirely and Peggy almost turns her back on him for good. Don also rejects Roger’s friendship, ostensibly because he finds his new marriage — and possibly his blackface routine — distasteful, but possibly because he envies him for jumping out of an unhappy marriage and chasing his dream.

To be honest, I feel stupid for thinking that Don would take this restrictive situation lying down. Though obviously in a paralysing depression, Don would have to escape this trap, otherwise the last two seasons of the show would have had little to offer other than variations on this soul-crushing sadness. Why tune in to see this once vital man sitting in a corporate office, watching the world change around him? Though it might be a fitting end for someone who can be as morally unpalatable as this, we forgive Don most of his trespasses because he is a fighter. There’s only one thing in fiction more appealing than a character who can save their own ass, and that’s someone who can save others too, which made this finale even more satisfying as Don faces up to the possible break-up of his marriage and realises that with that tether gone he has more freedom to reclaim his place in the world, bringing others up with him.

Throughout the season Don is haunted by flashes from the past: an imagined conception and birth scene, reminders of his step-brother’s suicide, visions of his father taunting him, and finally a memory of that man throwing away the help of a farming co-operative to go it alone. That decision might strike Don as noble, but it turns out to be ultimately foolhardy as his father is badly hurt by a horse during a storm, throwing their plans for self-sufficiency into turmoil. Nevertheless, these visions guide Don to find a third way between dependence and independence. With the help of a select few Sterling Cooper employees — including Sterling and Cooper — Don inspires the formation of the new firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, with a staff/family composed of the few people he respects, including the third season addition of the initially sinister and eventually adorable Lane Pryce.

That said, while Don is in cahoots with others whose abilities he now depends upon, he is so much his own man that he brings no accounts to the new firm. He just brings himself. While Bert brings money, Roger brings American Tobacco, Pete brings his accounts (note that he proudly displays his account acquisitions but won’t admit to getting the Clearasil account back from his father-in-law, as this lessens his moment of victory), and Lane brings a canny business mind and some sneaky pre-operation planning, Don is just Don. He’s there because he is the self-made man that he thinks Connie is. He could well bring the Hilton account — Connie mostly rejects Don at the start of the episode because he doesn’t want to deal with McCann Erickson, which would not be a problem with SCDP — but he doesn’t as that would tarnish him. He would be beholden to Connie, that little dependence holding him back from satisfying himself both professionally and emotionally. He has moved on from his father’s solitary ethos by creating a co-operative with the others, but has given them only his brain — the sweat of his brow — not his connections.

This is one possible interpretation of Don’s motives, and seems to fit with his visions of the past, but there is also the possibility that Don finds Connie’s pro-American stance a little distasteful. As we have seen with his trip to Italy, his interest in foreign cinema, and his encounter with European aristocrats in season two’s The Jet Set, Don seems to relish encountering other cultures, and would see Connie’s insular politics and worldview as restrictive and unpleasant. This will, of course, play out as the season goes on and America’s military begins to expand its operations in Vietnam (a conflict that is metaphorically alluded to with dark humour in the notorious lawnmower scene)…

…but is a love of world culture really Don’s main motivation in severing ties with Hilton? No matter what the cause, this act of intentional sabotage propels Don into the rest of the decade in a position of real power, and hopefully with the respect of the others. Knowing his own mind, Don becomes the persuasive and appealing businessman he once was, able to quickly win over the people he has hurt over the course of this season. Pete, Peggy and Roger are mad at Don for his actions, but it only takes him a few minutes to win them all back to his side, such is his enthusiasm and energy. Only Peggy really resists, but then his betrayal of her seems more personal and unexpected. Of course this works metaphorically as well, as Peggy stands for the rising tide of feminist thought. More than any other female character in the show she seems to be the one who instinctively follows her own path, though all the while dismissed and snubbed by the men who run the world.

An aside: I’ve often felt that she is growing into a Randian heroine, though Ayn Rand would probably have argued that you are born great, that you don’t become great over time. I suspect this association looms large in my mind for a number of reasons — including the continual exploration of the theme of individual responsibility, especially as expressed through Don’s arc, but I’ve also wondered if Peggy is modelled on Rand.

This connection with Peggy — which may or may not be intentional — is not the only time Rand has been referenced on the show. As the show dramatises many characters’ quest for self-determination, Rand’s philosophy seems to have affected Weiner’s thought processes as much as Rand’s fiction would have affected the belief systems of a group of affluent white men in the Sixties. These are the men who have the best opportunities laid at their feet and yet pretend that everything they have accomplished is thanks to them and them alone — a belief that would be bolstered by reading Rand’s fantasies. Bert Cooper is a big fan of Atlas Shrugged, though his semi-retirement at the end of season two seems to have more to do with torpor than an attempt to deprive the world of his wisdom. There is also a connection to The Fountainhead: Don has always struck me as a less-confident Howard Roark figure, and Jon Hamm even reminds me of Gary Cooper, who played Roarke in King Vidor’s adaptation.

Of course, Don is less steady than Roark, who is a typical Randian heroic figure, more god than man, flawless and honourable and utterly dismissive of all who do not live by his creed. Don does many things Roark doesn’t do, such as give advice to others out of a sense of altruism, which is of course the worst crime a human being can commit, according to Rand. However, though Don does seem capable of being vulnerable around the women in his life (another thing Rand would frown at), he can use sex as a weapon, as shown by his despicable treatment of Bobbie Barrett in season two. Of course, this is not quite as bad as the Sex-As-Actual-War-Between-Two-Gods scenes of Roark raping Dominique Francon.

Which character is worse? Is it possible for there to be grades of awfulness? Oh God, one of the few bad things about Mad Men is that just when I think I’ve suppressed memories of the craziness of Rand, the show brings it back up again. Well, this show and idiot teabaggers with their banners talking about Going Galt. Yes, the world will tremble once the right-wing bloggers of the world pack up their Macs and go hide in a cave somewhere. As the characters in Mad Men are very human, and capable of a full gamut of emotions, let’s just say that these guys are as influenced by Rand as anyone in the Sixties would have been (i.e. as much as people nowadays are superficially influenced by whichever dreary hot-topic book is riding high at number 3 on the best seller list after Twilight and The Lost Symbol), and then just forget the comparison I just made ever happened.

Back to Peggy, who is nothing like Rand and I’m sorry I brought it up. She’s a sexually open, confident woman who is unwilling to be treated as second-rate by the men she works with. She’s even in front of the curve on this, as other women on the show seem less able to find their own way than Peggy. Only Joan seems to be moving in the right direction, though with less haste and confidence than Peggy. While Peggy is now going after what she wants and confronting men about this (up to and including finally saying “no” to a request for coffee from Roger, who accepts this), Joan is still at the beck and call of the men in her life, a fact that seems to frustrate her enough that she will snap and crack a vase over your head if pushed to breaking point:

Her return was still the result of a hand-out from her former lover Roger, which blunts that moment of triumph, but even though she has yet to reach her full potential the way Peggy has, that entrance was still something else. I doff my cap to Christina Hendricks for that glorious sashay of victory, and to the showrunners for manipulating the feelings of Joan fans everywhere. It was possibly the best moment in the whole wonderful episode, with Lane’s final phone-call to St. John Powell a close second. Even so, Joan remains perhaps even more of a mystery than Betty. What do we really know about her? That her ambitions have been crushed? That she has embarked on a relationship with the man who raped her simply because you’re supposed to marry a rich man, and he seems like a good enough match? That she can rock the accordion like Sexiness Incarnate?

In comparison, Betty is becoming an open book. By now we’ve seen how she reacts to her family, the death of her father, and the breakdown of her marriage, we have more of an idea of how she views herself. In one of the few mis-steps of the season, in The Fog we see Betty hallucinating a meeting with her parents and, bafflingly, recently assassinated civil rights activist Medgar Evers:

That entire episode was shaky, with some of the worst on-the-nose dialogue in the show so far (we’re talking season-one-esque lack of subtlety), but even if it was obvious, the image of Betty staring admiringly at a butterfly unable to escape its cocoon is memorable. She has no urge to expand her horizons the way Peggy and Joan do, possibly because she has no real idea of what it is to become her own person. Though she has finally thrown Don out of her life on her terms, she has just moved from one relationship to another, with Henry taking control in social situations while she sits passively at his side.

There are hints that she might one day move on from dependence on the men in her life, such as a quick shot of her in an earlier episode reading the proto-feminist novel The Group. That said, if she does indeed love Henry, is this dependence or finding her own way? For much of the season it seemed like she was falling for him as a side-effect of the emotional fallout following her father’s death, but she does seem to genuinely feel something for him (though this affection is barely noticeable considering that “Nordic” affect she has). Maybe this is enough for her, and it’s unfair to compare her happiness with Don’s, which comes from his independence. Bear in mind the last time we see her she has symbolically left her previous life behind, flying to Reno with Henry and her new son Gene, while Sally and Bobby remain in her old home with Carla. Her eagerness to run away from that life might have disastrous consequences.

It’s also telling that she is courted by Henry on her terms. Her idea of romance involves a fainting couch bought especially as a focal point for her erotic and romantic fantasies. Poor Henry cannot fathom this kind of mindset. When he clumsily tries to seduce her she pushes him away, driving him to ask what exactly it is she wants:

Even someone who seems more understanding than Don cannot figure out why blunt come-ons aren’t working the way they should. Eventually he realises she wants their relationship to be built on something more “noble” than the trysts that her husband embarks on. Once he has raised the possibility of marriage to her, she accepts his advances. In the final episode Don grabs her and calls her a whore for taking another lover, but in her mind she has behaved more honourably than he ever has. Instead of being intimidated she holds his gaze long enough to make him release her. Does he let her go because the baby wakes up and begins crying? Or is he rattled by her confidence? I’m willing to bet he didn’t expect his quiet wife to threaten him with blackmail, and her defiant glare was the thing that convinced him to get the hell out of the house.

It’s tempting to feel happy for her and even for Don — who seems a little lost without his trophy wife but nevertheless as free as he always wanted to be — as long as we forget about how hard their break-up is going to be on their children. Baby Gene won’t even notice, but Bobby and Sally are already distraught. Sally especially seems to be the one who will come out of the whole affair with the most damage. Betty seems unable to understand her daughter, who acts out after the death of her grandfather and whose emotional outbursts and rebellious nature terrify her mother. Don seems to understand and accept her now that she seems like a human being with needs of her own and the drive to fulfil them, but he is now out of the picture.

Sally’s arc seems to be heading downwards, and of all the characters on the show, she is the one I feel most sorry for. Everyone else has their own tribulations to contend with, but even when they are trapped with seemingly no way out (as many characters seemed to this season), they can at least rely on their wits to regain their autonomy. Of those chosen by Don to work at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Harry is an innovator, Roger knows his own mind and dares to get a divorce even though such things were taboo at the time (unlike using blackface in a scene of such colossal WTFness that no one who has seen it has recovered yet)…

…and Pete has shown more ambition than Ken, who just follows everyone else like the chummy idiot he is. Paul has no imagination, unlike Peggy, and none of the receptionists seem to have any clue about what is going on around them (and can be so foolish as to drive a lawnmower over someone’s foot, as was seen in the memorable episode Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency). Until Don rallies his new team and harnesses their drive and imagination, they are doomed to a life of unsatisfying drudgery.

There are so many threads to the Mad Men tapestry that even though I have rambled on at horrible length I’ve barely touched the surface. The rest of the Sixties looms over the show, with the rebellious acts of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce mimicking not only American independence in the 18th Century (if we are to take the American/Brit divide so literally) but also the forthcoming youth movement, casting off the staid ways of their parents (with stuffy Brits with their upper-class accents here metaphorically representing the trad parents of hip young things). We’ve seen drugs infiltrate the hallowed offices as Paul tries to kickstart his malfunctioning imagination with marijuana, though unfortunately for him he only succeeds in bonding with an old college friend while Peggy is inspired to save the day, as ever.

There’s also the changing relationship between sex and guilt, with one character embracing her sexuality and another learning a lesson. Peggy learns to love her libido, seducing a young college student early in the series and pretty much accepting it, though being much more mature about birth control than she was in the past. We also see Pete –wracked with boredom while his wife Trudy is away — “seduce” (i.e. blackmail and coerce) his next door neighbour’s  German au pair into sleeping with him, but after getting confronted about it by the neighbour…

…he does something Don would never do: he realises the error of his ways and phones Trudy to beg her never to leave him alone again. Is he doing that because he was caught? Considering how he didn’t learn his lesson after sleeping with Peggy — an act, let’s not forget, that ended with Peggy secretly pregnant — it’s odd that this tryst rattled him, even though his actions were technically forgiven by the neighbour who only seems mad because he has to deal with an upset maid, and then gives Pete advice on how to conduct his affairs in future. I’d like to think Pete has finally learned a lesson and appreciates Trudy and her selfless support. Of all the couples in the show, Pete and Trudy end the series in the best shape, acting as a team to first conspire against Sterling Cooper, and then help Don and his gang of rebels.

So we’re seeing the notoriously transformative Sixties shake up this WASPy, Republican world. We’ve seen how JFK’s assassination has shaken them up (in an episode sensitively written by Weiner and first time writer Brett Johnson, and brilliantly directed by Barbet Schroeder), but what next for the show? If the usual timejumps are anything to go by, the show will be set around 1965-66, before the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., before Woodstock, around the time of the Watts Riots and the escalation of the Vietnam War. By then I hope that Matthew Weiner has found a way to bring in all of the regular characters from the first three seasons, not just because I like Paul, Ken (Cosgrove! Accounts!) and Sal, but because without them in the show there will be no more appearances by the gang (plus LeVar Burton) on The Soup:

In the meantime, we’re looking at another sweep of the Emmys and Golden Globes. I’ve been annoyed in the past when other shows I love don’t get awards thanks to the usual shut-outs by Mad Men, but this year there’s a good chance I won’t mind at all. How can the amazing work from Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, and Jared Harris not be rewarded, or the superb direction from Phil Abrahams, Lesli Linka Glatter, Michael Uppendahl, and Daisy von Scherler Meyer, or the crack writing staff headed by the perfectionist Matthew Weiner? In the past, even when I’ve liked the show, it’s been a superficial respect. I had never embraced the show the way I have The Shield, or Lost, or Friday Night Lights. Perhaps that’s the thing I liked most about the third season. Finally I have come to think of the characters as imaginary friends, and the offices of Sterling Cooper as a kind of playground that my mind can run through. At last I am a Mad Men obsessive, with both mind and heart. It was a triumph, then. An absolute 100% triumph. And for those who think the show is po-faced (as if any show featuring the comedy stylings of Roger Sterling could ever be truly po-faced), here is a screen capture of the Art Department door.

A fart joke! On the classiest show on TV! Paradoxically, that makes the show a little classier.

(Thanks to Daisyhellcakes, Cat Vincent, Anne Billson, and all the other Twitter Mad Men fans I have similarly pestered. Their conversation throughout this season has helped crystallise the millions of disparate thoughts inspired by this thoroughly challenging show.)

A rede norte-americana CBS planeja estrear em 2010 uma nova versão de Havaí 5-0. A NBC prepara um remake de Arquivo Confidencial (The Rockford Files). NCIS: Los Angeles é um sucesso nos Estados Unidos. Melrose Place ganhou temporada completa e 90210 segue com boa audiência para os padrões do CW.

O fã de séries que é esperto já acendeu a luz amarela. A crise de criatividade que assombra o cinema há alguns anos começa a bater à porta das séries. Se os produtores não abandonarem a fórmula fácil dos remakes, dos spin-offs (seriados derivados), das versões norte-americanas de atrações internacionais e dos roteiros adaptados, tudo o que foi construído nos últimos anos pode escorrer pelo ralo.

Sim, eu sei que é financeiramente seguro produzir The Vampire Diaries. Mas não foi graças a Kath & Kim, Life on Mars ou Worst Week que as séries chegaram a um dos maiores índices de popularidade da história do formato.

Os seriados são objetos de culto graças a apostas ousadas como 24 Horas, Desperate Housewives, Família Soprano, Sons of Anarchy, The Shield e outras atrações.

O comodismo dos produtores de Hollywood sacrificou a qualidade em nome de algumas boas bilheterias. Pense rápido e me diga um verdadeiro clássico nos últimos cinco anos. Que longa-metragem vencedor do Oscar merece lugar no ranking dos filmes realmente memoráveis?

Em uma coletiva do Warner Channel realizada há algum tempo, o crítico Rubens Ewald Filho me disse que as produções para a TV andavam mais interessantes que muitos lançamentos do cinema.

Concordei com ele. Não foi à toa que atores consagrados, como Glenn Close, migraram para a telinha. São raros casos como Damages ou House no cinema recente. Não consigo pensar em um filme de impacto, que realmente impressionou as pessoas ou contribuiu para uma mudança no modelo de negócio, como Lost e sua interação com outras mídias.

Remakes e afins são ótimos para saudosistas. Não para quem realmente gosta de TV e quer atrações de qualidade.

* Texto originalmente publicado no blog Poltrona.

Today Newsarama posted a preview of  The Shield #3 featuring Magog.

On Monday Dan Didio answered a question with this information:

…One last thing is that we made one change on the books and we’re bringing in Matt Sturges on The Web, and he’s really excited about it. And that’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing a stronger interplay between some of the Red Circle characters and the JSA.

Yesterday, Matt Sturges replied to some questions on the ComicBloc:

leonmallett: I am sure I read a rumour of the Shield (or maybe another Red Circle character) popping up in JSA. Now this may have ultimately related to the guest star that Shield has seen in his own title of course, but I was wondering if there are any Red Circle plans within the JSA books?

Matt Sturges: Not at present, though since I’m writing both the Web and All-Stars, I suppose there’s certainly a possibility of such a thing.

If  we see more interaction between the characters, it seems it most likely will be further down the line.

Some of his other answers let everyone know:

• Team members would be added and subtracted but the structure of the team will remain the same.
• He has an idea for an Amazing Man story we might see down the line.
• Power Girl has always been a favorite of his.
• There are non plans for a JSA All-Stars and an All-Star Squadron team-up.

Read more here.

A grande richiesta (di chi?) vede la luce una mia personale graduatoria che finora era rimasta confinata in un forum (per la precisione, questo).

Premessa d’obbligo: alcuni serial considerati di culto e presenti in quasi tutte le classifiche di questo tipo non li ho ancora visti. Uno su tutti, i Sopranos. Sono lì, pronti, pazientemente scaricati collezionati, aspetto solo che le giornate inizino a durate 48 ore (Silvio, non si può fare niente al riguardo?) e poi me li pappo.

Inutile aggiungere, poi, che se non volete essere spoilerati meglio saltare a più pari la lettura delle descrizioni degli episodi.

10. Prison Break – Season 1: End of the tunnel

Ovvero, l’apice assoluto di una serie che, in quel periodo, era veramente figa. In altre tre stagioni e mezza quei livelli non verranno più raggiunti, neanche lontanamente. La tensione, le storie che si intrecciano, il cliffhanger: tutto perfetto.

A bleeding Abruzzi is transported to a hospital. With Lincoln’s execution scheduled for the following day, Veronica comes out of hiding to contact him and gains an ally. Kellerman makes the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the conspiracy.
Michael looks for a way to get Lincoln out of solitary confinement in time for the escape that evening. The PI crew gets a prolonged stay in the break room they’re renovating as they prepare to attempt their escape.

9. Dexter – Season 1: Born free

Il finale della prima stagione di Dexter, per me, rimane insuperato. Si sono avvicinati spesso (soprattutto di recente, a testimonianza di come questa serie continui ad essere ispirata) ma il livello di emotività del confronto Dexter – Rudy – Deb è qualcosa di unico.

Doakes and LaGuerta begin to suspect that Rudy is the Ice Truck Killer, while Dexter finds a suspicious picture of the shipping container where his mother was killed. A call from her ex-husband makes Rita suspicious of Dexter and his behavior. Dexter finds Rudy at Dexter’s childhood home and finds that Rudy, the alleged Ice Truck Killer, is in fact Dexter’s biological brother, Brian Moser, who grew up in a mental institution. Brian intends to have Dexter kill Debra as a reunion with his true family, but Dexter stops him. As the police close in, Brian escapes and Dexter is left with Debra, appearing to have saved her. The same night, Brian breaks into Dexter’s apartment and attempts to stab Debra, but Dexter captures him. After an emotionally charged conversation, Dexter slices his brother’s throat and leaves him upside down to drain, staging it as a suicide, while wondering what would happen if everyone knew the truth about him.

8. Oz – Season 6: A Day in the Death…

Noto ora che in questa top 10 sono presenti ben due puntate incentrate sugli ultimi momenti di vita (o presunti tali) di un detenuto.  Comunque, questo è il canto del cigno di Oz, a pochi episodi dal termine, ed è forse il suo momento migliore in assoluto. Per una volta è l’umanità dei detenuti a dominare sui loro istinti più beceri, e la commozione durante i momenti che precedono l’esecuzione tocca vette impensabili. E poi il finale frega tutti.

Beecher turns his back to Keller and Schillinger moves in; Rosa’s advice to Rebadow comes too late, Stella doesn’t want his bad vibes around; Idzik transfers to Em City with Omar White as his sponsor; more details about the violent death of Mayor Loewen come to light when Glynn discovers a connection between Johnson and Loftus; Robson continues sessions with Sister Pete and attends rape counseling group therapy; Cutler’s widow pays Alvarez a visit; The hospital’s angel of death is caught; Burr’s employment situation calls for immediate action, but when the print shop is vandalized, Arif looks the other way; as Cyril’s execution approaches, the O’Reilys get support from their fellow inmates.

7. The Office – Season 2: Dwight’s Speech

Forse non sarà in assoluto il miglior episodio della serie (anche se ci va vicino), ma è senza dubbio quello col momento più esilarante. Il discorso in stile hitleriano di Dwight Schrute mi ha tolto il respiro dal ridere per 10 minuti abbondanti, cosa che nel corso della seconda stagione succedeva molto spesso.

In the episode, Michael helps Dwight with an important speech that he is going to give. Meanwhile, Jim plans a vacation to avoid Pam’s wedding.

6. 24 – Day 3: 6:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.

Qui la scelta è stata ardua. Avrei potuto anche mettere l’episodio della bomba atomica nel Day 2 o qualcosa del 5, ma anche qui la spunta l’episodio con la scena più potente. Jack Bauer è costretto ad uccidere un suo collega, un collega che avevamo odiato nel corso degli anni ma per cui proviamo una pena infinita, mentre sa a che destino sta per andare incontro. Un pezzo di tv che qualsiasi detrattore di 24 dovrebbe guardare per capire che razza di profondità è in grado di raggiungere.

With Chappelle’s life on the line, Jack and Chase race against time to capture Saunders before 7:00 AM- the deadline for his next demand. Michelle begins a frantic search when she learns that an infected hotel guest may have slipped through her fingers. Jack shoots Chapelle.

5. Battlestar Galactica – Season 4: Blood on the Scales

Il momento migliore del periodo migliore di Battlestar Galactica, una serie che ha vissuto di (straordinari) alti e (strazianti) bassi, ma che quando azzeccava la puntata giusta dava la merda a più o meno tutti. E questa è la puntata giusta. Anzi, la seconda parte della puntata giusta. Una “digressione” all’interno della trama principale, ma che digressione: Gaeta e Zarek passano da comprimari ad assoluti protagonisti in un crescendo emotivo assolutamente devastante. E la chiamano fantascienza.

President Roslin faces off against Tom Zarek and Lt. Gaeta as they try to take control of the Colonial fleet. The alliance with the rebel Cylons as well as Adama’s life are both at stake.

4. Lost – Season 4: The Constant

E poi si passa a Lost, che potrebbe tranquillamente monopolizzare la classifica, ma per decenza mi limito ad inserire questo episodio e un altro (a caso…). The Constant raccoglie quello che Flashes Before Your Eyes aveva coltivato, si cala la maschera una volta per tutte e vengono finalmente sdoganati i viaggi temporali. Desmond vive il suo momento di miglior splendore (quanto sembrano lontani quei giorni) e un climax finale assolutamente perfetto mi strappa un bel po’ di lacrime.

In the episode, Desmond Hume and Sayid Jarrah are on their way to the freighter in the helicopter when they hit turbulence, which causes Desmond’s 1996 consciousness to take over his 2004 body and switch uncontrollably between 1996 and 2004. In 2004, the helicopter reaches the freighter and Sayid and Desmond are introduced to communications officer George Minkowski, who is “unstuck in time” like Desmond.

3. The Shield – Season 5: Postpartum

La più grande mazzata che io abbia mai preso guardando un telefilm. Accennarla a chi non ha mai visto The Shield ed ha magari in programma di recuperarlo significherebbe rovinargli un momento incredibile, inimmaginabile, assurdo, ingiusto, straziante, devastante, indimenticabile. Quindi fidatevi e basta.

Mackey arranges to get Lemansky out of the country to a new life in Mexico. Aceveda and Kavanaugh join forces to nail Mackey for harboring a fugitive. Wagenbach files for a transfer, and Sofer decides to inform her baby’s father of his new child. Shane takes extreme steps to stop the investigation.

2. Arrested Development – Season 3: Mr. F

Il più alto pezzo di televisione che io abbia mai visto, probabilmente. Venti minuti didattici in cui Ron Howard e soci ci insegnano come si scrive la puntata perfetta. Una serie di particolari apparentemente insignificanti che, alla fine, si incastrano tra loro alla perfezione come pezzi di un puzzle e ci regalano la più roboante risata che uno show televisivo possa regalare. Non siamo degni.

Gob tries to trick the company’s Japanese investors by building a “Tiny Town,” but Tobias ruins everything after he mistakes a CIA agent for a talent agent from CAA.

(non trovo la clip, quindi accontentatevi di questa)

1. Lost – Season 3: Through the looking glass

Ok, ok, scelta banale, ovvia, quello che volete. Ma onestamente, esiste un altro episodio che abbia avuto un impatto simile sullo show e sul pubblico? Un’ora e venti che è già storia della televisione. Comunque andrà a finire Lost, questo sarà il momento che ci ricorderemo per sempre. WE HAVE TO GO BACK!

The episode begins its narrative in late December 2004, over ninety days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815. The battle between the crash survivors and the dangerous and mysterious island inhabitants referred to as the “Others” comes to a head as ten of the Others attack and are then ambushed at the survivors’ camp and are subsequently killed. Meanwhile, Jack Shephard (played by Matthew Fox) leads most of the survivors to the island’s radio tower to communicate with a nearby ship. Intercut with this story are off-island scenes spotlighting Jack, who has become suicidally depressed and addicted to painkillers. In a twist ending, it is revealed that these scenes are flashforwards to sometime in the future, after Jack has left the island, rather than flashbacks as in previous episodes of Lost.

In this weeks installment of Newsarama’s “10 Answers and 1 Question w/ DC’s DAN DIDIO” Dan talked quite a bit about some JSA material.

He had this to say about the Red Circle characters:

Also, we saw Magog appearing in The Shield, and we’re probably going to see the Shield meeting up with some of Magog’s other friends, from the JSA. So there’s a chance you’re going to be seeing some of that.

…One last thing is that we made one change on the books and we’re bringing in Matt Sturges on The Web, and he’s really excited about it. And that’s one of the reasons why you’re seeing a stronger interplay between some of the Red Circle characters and the JSA.

Black Canary will be…

Reunited with old friends.

On the Marvel Family:

One of the things that will pick up some of those beats, although not seeing Black Adam exactly, is Osiris returns in Power of Shazam in January. I guess the Black Lantern Osiris is wondering exactly the same question: Where is Black Adam and Isis?

…When that storyline ended, Billy and Mary had lost their powers, Black Adam and Isis had been turned to stone, the Wizard had basically taken all of his toys and gone back to the Rock of Eternity, and somebody mysterious appeared from the shadows, looking to upset things down the line.

We’re going to see Osiris in Power of Shazam, and then there will be hints as to what might be coming down the road throughout the year. But this is a story that hasn’t been played out. And it probably won’t be played out for awhile. There are certain things taking place in the DCU that are setting in motion where this is all heading. But it’s not something that will be played out very quickly.

Dan also said we would probably see another Marvel Family story post-Blackest Night, later in 2010.

Thoughts: Interesting that the Sheild might join the JSA. That would mean thre star-spangled costumes on the team if he joins. I wonder if he has any connections with Citizen Steel. The Marvel Family stuff is very exciting and I hope Black Canary is getting back together with the Birds of Prey!

Eric Trautmann has a big JSA week this week, with his JSA vs. Kobra finale and Magog guest appearance in The Shield.

GREEN ARROW AND BLACK CANARY #26

Written by Andrew Kreisberg; Art by Renato Guedes and Jose Wilson Magalhães and Mike Norton and Bill Sienkiewicz; Cover by Ladrönn
Black Canary squares off against Cupid and her new partner (Green Arrow?!) in the lead story this month! Meanwhile in this issue’s co-feature, Green Arrow teams up with Black Canary against Cupid and…Green Arrow?
DC Universe | 40pg. | Color | $3.99 US | Preview

JSA VS. KOBRA #6 (OF 6)

Written by Eric Trautmann; Art by Don Kramer and Michael Babinski; Cover by Gene Ha
It all ends here! Now that the Kobra’s lair has been razed by the Justice Society, Jason Burr’s plans should fall to pieces. But the terrorist leader has more than one plan at work, and the JSA won’t be able to stop them all once they’re put in motion! It’s old dogs vs. new tricks in one final gambit!
DC Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US | Preview

THE SHIELD #3

Written by Eric Trautmann; Co-feature written by Brandon Jerwa; Art by Marco Rudy and Mick Gray; Co-feature art by Greg Scott; Cover by Francis Manapul
The Shield is due to conclude his first mission, but he may not get out alive! “Backed up” by fellow former soldier Magog and facing the evil behind the mind-grabbing evil known as the Brain Emperor, The Shield better catch his bearings fast if he plans on surviving his third issue!
Meanwhile, Inferno keeps blazing a trail wherever he goes, no matter how hard he tries to stay invisible.
DC Universe | 40pg. | Color | $3.99 US | Preview

The Shield

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus arrives for the gents to consider, unfortunately without much favour. They continue into talks about movie budgets and creativity, scary children’s films and whether there will be a shift in the horror genre on the back of Paranormal Activity. They talk about True Blood, The Shield, Good Will Hunting and Sunshine, before a long trailer round-up taking in everything from The White Ribbon to Black Dynamite.

Download The Movie Overdose Episode 39

Show notes to follow, for the last three weeks. Promise…

Yo! Welcome back! This is part 4 of my notes from the writersroom seminar. Check out the other parts in our last three blogs. Today we’re talking about…

CHARACTER

One of my favourite TV shows ever is “The Shield”, a police drama about a police station that is right in the middle of LA gangland. The main character, Vic Mackey (a corrupt cop), is an incredibly interesting character. Not at all a likeable person, but SO entertaining to watch. You’re always wondering what he’s going to do next. Here’s a scene to show you what I mean, but be warned, it’s pretty gross and the language isn’t suitable for kids. Mackey is the bald one…

Whenever you’re writing a character, you really need to make them compelling on an emotional level. No amount of fiddling with the other details of your script will help if you don’t have compelling characters.

There’s no real way of being “taught” how to do this, but you can examine the characters you’ve written and if you can’t connect with them, or they seem dry, or stereotypical, or if they all seem to have the same “voice”, then you know you need to work on them some more. They need to be somebody that you want to spend time with, not necessarily somebody that you like, but somebody who makes you want to know what they’re going to do next and what’s going to happen to them.

Part of this is making sure that you take your characters on an “active journey”, and by this, I mean that the character is motivated by desires or needs, and that they face obstacles or come up against dilemmas that get in the way of these desires. How they deal with these situations is how you reveal the nature of your characters and make them identifiable.

Another part of it is making sure you don’t play into the trap of using stereotypical characters, but instead create them as individuals. The last thing that Paul Ashton (of the writersroom) said about character that really, really struck me was, “what does your character see when they look at the world?” It seems so simple, but if you can get your head into the character, and think about how they view the world/people around them, you can think about how they see it differently from everybody else. This will make it easier to write for them – they will become more “alive”, interesting and individual.

That’s all for today, peeps. Catch you tomorrow.

L.

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The Shield #2
Written by Eric Trauttman
Art by Marco Rudy
Co-Feature by Brandon Jerwa 
Art by Greg Scott

The second issue of this series was just as good as the first. The Shield is a VERY powerful character. I felt like he did something new with his warsuit on every page. The villain looked like he had a head made out of Spaghetti and it was pretty gross and while the art was good, it seemed a little unfinished at some parts. Magog still proves to be completely unlikable especially when compared to The Shield, who truly seems to be a real hero; always avoiding killing anyone. The Inferno back-up was okay story-wise but the art is just not fun to look at I am sorry to say.

La track de la semaine :

• Ce n’est pas une track, mais la participation de Prince au Grand Journal. En 2 parties, parce que Monsieur initialement prévue pour 2 titres en live à décider de prolonger le plaisir. Les américains ont Prince, la France a Sliimy….merde, on s’est encore fait blouser.

La playlist du Rider :

Wayne Campbell :

• Wolfpack Party 2010, bitch i’m a baller. The Pack, extrait de la prochaine tape “Wolfpack Party”. Comme un gout d’eurodance 1999 en 2009. En attendant il y a la tape de Young L et Lil B “S.S mixtape vol.2″ dispo avec plein de sons comme Let my wheels spin.

• Back to the start,  extrait du “It’s not me, it’s you” de Lily Allen. Lily j’aimerais bien etre son pote, elle a l’air cool. Et j’aime bien ses albums, c’est rafraichissant. Et Fuck you.

• Jouir sur le visage. Ami(e) poète bonjour. Tekitek et Jean Nippon s’amusent, c’est électro-un-peu-fou.

Easy V :

• Ca balance pas mal à Paris. Mon pote, Michel Berger (RIP) et ma girl, France Gall dont c’était l’anniversaire, il y a quelques jours. Michel, c’est un peu notre Quincy à nous ou notre Timbaland. “Il a amené le Groove en France” (la France, le pays, pas France Gall, quoiqu’il a du la groové aussi) disait Mouloud.

• Line In the Sand, de MotorHead, parce que je suis un rider et un catcheur.

• I Can Transform Ya, le retour de Chris Brown feat. Lil Wayne & Swizz Beatz. Qui a vu Nivea depuis que Weezy l’a engrossée ? Il l’a bien transformé, l’enfoiré.

La vidéothèque du Rider :

• Braquo. Canal + ne blague pas. Leurs créations originales sont généralement sympathique. Je me souviens encore de “Rien dans les poches” avec la plus belle femme de France (Emma De Caunes) l’hiver dernier, et ce coup ci on a droit à une sorte de The Shield à la française. Mais si petit pompage il y a, le pompage est bien fait (pas comme le truc de TF1 qui se la joue Experts à Clichy sous bois). Bref on a des flics pas très réglo, qui en même tant que leurs enquêtes n’hésitent pas  à faire dans l’illicite à titre personnel. Olivier Marchal ne blague pas non plus, ma foi.

• Sons of Anarchy, par l’un des producteurs de The Shield (décidément). Un club de biker, attention des vrais bikers (pas des petits pd en Suzuki 600 Bandit là c’est du lourd, tout de noir vêtu, blouson en cuir, tatouages et casque non intégral et tout le bordel), qui tentent de garder le contrôle de sa petite bourgade par tous les moyens en luttant contre les dealers et les gangs adverses avides de conquête. Violence, trafic d’armes, règlement de compte…bref tout y est. Et au milieu de tout ça, le fils de l’ex-leader du groupe amené à devenir futur président du club qui est pris entre son amour pour le club et son apréhension de voir celui ci tomber dans la violence et le banditisme. Bref M6, tous les vendredis à 23h10. Et M6 Replay comme séance de rattrapage.

Ecoute et regarde le jeune, tu deviendras moins con.