Crystal. Maybach. Diamonds on your timepiece. Jet planes. Islands.Tigers on a gold leash. We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in your love affair~Lorde

Royals by Lorde seems to be the kind of song that everyone wants to cover, and some of them are damn good. I’ve pasted in a couple of the best ones below.

Meanwhile, sixteen year old New Zealander, Lorde, has a runaway hit on her hands. A song reputably written in half an hour in response to the wealth and shallowness of the Hip Hop Industry, has a simple pared down video directed by Joel Kefali and featuring Lorde’s school mates.

The video is a depiction of ordinary teenage life, limited to a few scenes of two young men getting about their very unglamorous business. Lorde features in short, interspersed flashes, singing some lines (there is a US version and an international version), and that’s about it!

Does it work? Well its got that spare, barely-choregraphed, home movie thing going for it, but I doubt that’s been enough to truly satisfy the palate of the sophisticated music video consumer. No dancing. No imagery directly connected with the lyrics and guys with zits (the latter is enough to make me like it! Love a dose of reality).

With nearly 130 million views on YouTube, it’s certainly been seen by a bunch of people. Fortunately the song is so good, my feeling is that the video neither enhances nor detracts!

Here’s the US version:

And here’s the Florda State University Capella Version:

And the Ali Brustofski version with Savannah Outen, Andrew Garcia, Caitlin Hart & Josh Golden

And lastly … the Pentatonix

Which one do you like best?

Person of Interest was rating so high in popularity on my TV and Movie app, I grabbed a copy of season one. To be perfectly honest, I laboured through the first three episodes. There were not enough female actors and I had trouble connecting with the characters of John Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Harold Finch (Michael Emerson). Finch seemed to be a stereotypically nerdy genius and Reese was … well he was Reese (if you watch the show you’ll know what I mean). The premise – a super computer/artificial intelligence that can predict crimes against ordinary people (read: they are about to die), was also not an idea that intrigued me. I perservered because I had nothing else to watch at the time, and as the through-story began to grow, so did my interest.

The introduction of Root (Amy Aker) in S1 and then Samantha Shaw (Sarah Shahi) in S2 added new layers and tensions, and I began to feel the familiar tug of engagement as the series evolved into more of a complex thriller, than a predictable episodic.

Both the Reese and Finch characters gain nuance and depth as their back stories are revealed. Their relationship builds from what begins as something based on mutual but mistrustful need, into a rather sweet friendship. A quaint bromance between a one man wrecking ball with no respect for the law, and a morally questionable genius.

As for the secondary characters. Well, I fell instantly in love with Agent Shaw (what’s not to love about a kick ass operative with a self-proclaimed personality disorder?), and Sarah Shahi does a wonderful job of being obsessive and indefatigable. Detective Fusco (Kevin Chapman) is perfectly cast as the corrupt but ulitmately good-hearted cop who’s got himself in too deep, and Amy Aker’s portrayal of brilliant hacker Root is pretty convincing. I still feel a little ambivalent about Taraji P. Henson as Detective Carter. Some episodes I’m totally on board with her, and other times, I feel irritated with the dialogue she’s been given. It’s like the writers want her to be smart but don’t always give her smart things to say (and then stuff happens with her in S3 – but I haven’t seen that yet, so no spoilers please!). By S2 episode episode 10, I experienced one of those rare goosebump WOW! moments as Gimme Shelter plays in the background as Reese is arrested by the FBI (see below).

Corrupt police, shady CIA, interfering FBI, shadow government organisations and powerful criminals all play their part in the POI tapestry. As the series grows, the ideas are fleshed out and the plot begins to show signs of some clever basket weaving, all the while tickling our palates with a taste of a possible future.

Fans of the series call themselves Irrelevants, which is a reference to the ordinary people who are about to become victims. And they can surely count me as one of them.

S2 ep 10. One of my favourite scenes in a TV series, which probably needs full context to be appreciated.

I can’t remember who recommended this – I think it was one of my Twitter TV buddies. Whoever it was … thank you!! It was quite regularly a confronting series, filled with characters who teetered on the edge of being quite unlikeable – but not quite. This, of course, is just the way I love them cooked!

Here’s the wiki blurb:

Southland takes a “raw and authentic look” at Los Angeles and the lives of the LAPD officers who police it. The show’s first season centers on the experiences and interactions of LAPD patrol officers and detectives, and is more a character-driven drama than a police procedural.^[14][15]

Among the characters are rookie Officer Ben Sherman and his training officer, John Cooper who, unknown to most of his colleagues, is homosexual; Detective Lydia Adams, who must balance work with the responsibility of living with her mother; Officer Chickie Brown, who aspires to be the first woman on the LAPD’s elite SWAT team; and Detective Sammy Bryant, whose home life interferes with his working life.

Aside from the outstanding casting, the script was full of energy. It was a very visceral show that tied my stomach in knots.   Earlier in the year, I stayed in the general area where the series was filmed and that added a whole other dimension of meaning for me. I’d love to know how someone who actually lives in South LA, found the show.

Favourite characters were (Regina King as) Lydia Adams and (Arija Bareikis) as Chickie Brown; both strong, survivors in a violent and largely masculine world. Michael Kudlitz as John Cooper was a tour de force as the tough gay officer, and Ben Mckenzie (as Ben Sherman) and Shawn Hatosy (as Sammy Bryant) absolutely nailed their parts. Though wonderful, it was hard for me to truly love any of the male characters – there was too much underlying brutality about them. That did not lessen my enjoyment of the show though.

The final series was a poignant depiction of Sherman’s declining morality and Cooper’s growth and self realisation. I was sad to see it end in a bittersweet kind of way.

Thumbs up for the filmic style, acting, casting and writing.