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Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Brief Siesta

I’m working on some great new posts, I promise, but they’re interacting with each other in interesting ways, so I’ll hold off a little before I post them.  I’ll keep working on them then I’ll be back in week or two! 

7 comments:

j.s. said...

Before you take off, I'm curious about your opinion of the country music biopic COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER. There's a gorgeous new HD transfer out there on cable and Blu-ray that I randomly caught over the weekend. I was surprised by how involving it was, but how it mostly didn't fall back on cliches or into typical biopic traps and how it was really structured as a love story about Loretta Lynn and her husband. Almost every key development in the film is a crisis that's either created or resolved by his (sometimes overreaching) uncanny ability to know what she wants and do what's best for her. And whatever growth they both achieve by the end of the film all comes down to a pretty nuanced renegotiation of the way in which he really just kind of "gets" her.

Matt Bird said...

I've never seen it, and that's really weird because I love Loretta Lynn and her life story. I can't justify myself. I'll check it out.

Jill Rasmussen said...

And to digress a bit more - have you checked out that new ensemble sitcom Mixology? We've watched the first 3 episodes. Curious to hear your thoughts on how they're exploring the whole ensemble idea.

Matt Bird said...

I watched the pilot and that was it for me. I didn't find any of the characters to be appealing (except maybe the guy with the beard, who seemed to have a little bit of potential).

And the concept seemed like a huge stretch: the night out seemed to be pretty much over at the end of the episode. There were no big goals that hadn't been met: our hero had already gotten the phone number of the most attractive girl in the bar, so that's time to go home, right?

I mean, if there was some other charming girl in the bar, and we could see that she and our hero were perfect for each other, but they hadn't met yet, and we were yearning for them to get together, then maybe, but they set up nothing that we wanted to see happen that hadn't already happened.

Why not have each episode be another night out a week later? Has anyone ever hung out in one singles bar for 7 hours straight and found that the experience just kept getting better and better? There's a reason that these places are called "meat markets": just like real grocery stores, everybody's trying to get out as quickly as possible.

Jill Rasmussen said...

Yeah, it is definitely pushing the limits on how long an audience can stand watching the same night. I think the red-headed guy (bearded guy) is the only reason we watch.

James Kennedy said...

You and Betsy look so cute in that picture.

George Speed said...

Love your dedication to story... thanks for everything.. Namaste Speedo