Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!

Friday Night Lights has been on my radar for a while, recommended to me by very good friends. Sometimes it takes a while for the time to be right to embark on immersing yourself into a fictional world, and with FNL I’ve been waiting for that prefect moment.

Trusting your unconscious to signal when that right time be has worked pretty well for me in the past. I believe its the intuitive part of the story-telling hindbrain that pops up and says, time to view.

Anyway, this is a long way around saying that I’m glad I waited. Why? I had a sporting related trip to the US in May this year and met a bunch of basketball coaches, went to a heap of colleges, and experienced first-hand the awe of the 80K football stadiums. Coming to this series after those experiences, makes my viewing of this series much more enriched. I totally get it, in a way I just wouldn’t have before. Australia is reknown for being a sport-obsessed nation, but there is a magnitude of belief and culture around sports in the US that doesn’t compare, even to here.

I’ve only watched the best part of two series but I’ve been impressed on SO many levels; the acting, the script, the story arcs, the delicate balance between heartbreak and joy. I believe some of the power in the story comes from the way it’s delivered. The show’s wiki states that the whole thing was filmed without blocking and rehearsal, so there’s a lot of hand-held follow around filiming and raw ad-libbing. The actors were encouraged to use their initiative. The EP’s quoted as saying, “no rehearsal, no blocking, just three cameras and we shoot.”

Deep into series two now, I’m finding only a few tiny instances of straying into melodrama, but many more of intelligent, soulful story-telling and social commentary. I feel terribly connected to all the characters – even Buddy Garrity! If I had to single a couple out, Taylor Kitsch is pretty much to-die-for in the role of bad boy, Tim Riggins, and Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor is quite superb. Of the female cast, the characters Lyla Garrity, Tyra Collette, Corinna Williams and Tami Taylor worked best for me ( and LOVE LOVE LOVE Lorraine “Grandma” Saracen).

The anatomy of Eric and Tami’s marriage with the arrival of a new baby and their separation due to work commitments is beautifully portrayed, as is the Jason (6) Street’s journey from athlete to quadraplegic, Smash, Saracen and Riggin’s different struggles into manhood and Tyra’s desperate attempt to break the family mold. So much is going on in this show and its organic feel contributes to creating the illusion that you’re listening and watching and being a part of your own friends and family’s lives.

Not sure if it was my own personal experiences with sport, but the game scenes NEVER failed to give me goose pimples. What makes me sad is that it didn’t reach a wider audience – as it seems viewers were put off by a notion that this was a story about football, when in fact it’s a complex narrative about how our choices define us.

Love it and trying not to watch it too fast!

Spiral (Gears) is, without question, the best thing I’ve watched on television aside from The Killing. The cultural differences between the two series are quite significant as Spiral is French and The Killing is Danish but both have brilliantly well drawn characters.

The story focuses largely on events surrounding Police Inspector Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) and Assistant Prosecuting Judge, Pierre Clement (Gregory Fitoussi – yum!). In doing so the series relfects heavily on the French Inquistorial Justice system. It also highlights many of the social problems in Paris; drugs, immigrant assimilation and political corruption.

It is quite explicit and gruesome in parts, and very violent. While  The Killing works as a slow burn, Spiral is confrontational and (depending on your sensibilities) shocking. It doesn’t hold back on the uglier side of human nature.

We talk a lot about flawed characters in fiction, and they don’t get much more flawed than Laure, Pierre, Judge Francois Roban and Josephine Karlsson. Laure and Pierre swing between integrity and its opposite, while Francois’ passion for the law costs him everything, and the black-hearted Joesephine shows that even the most corrupt of people can sometimes come through. Truly riveting stuff! I particulary enjoyed the dynamic between Laure and her team – specifically her co-dependency with the cocoaine-snorting Lieutenant “Gilou”.

I am absolutely hanging out for series 4. Can things get any worse for the volatile, single-minded Laure and the suave, conflicted Pierre? I imagine, having seen what the brilliant writers have done already, they can! I’ll certainly be there to stumble with them, and angst over whether they will make the right decisions.

Dana Delaney stars as a neurosurgeon forced into becoming a coroner because she can no longer operate. She’s depicted as arrogant, socially awkward and has high heels surgically attached to her feet (just kidding!).

I’ve watched the first season and may go back for the second, but more from idle curiosity than any real compulsion to follow the story. Body of Proof while at times amusing, is for the most part, uninspiring.

Two elements of the show work for me. First, is the sub-plot of Megan (Dana Delaney) trying to reconnect with her daughter. Though I don’t buy the whole “I was a bad mother thing”, her attempt to get to know her daughter again is, on occasions, quite touching.

The second highlight is the humour brought to the screen by the character Curtis (Windell Middlebrooks who is funny without even trying). His uhumms and eye-rolls are delivered with immaculate timing. Oh and Jeri Ryan adds glamour to anything she’s in.

Unfortunately, the murder mysteries are very pedestrian and Sonja Sohn (The Wire) is badly cast. She’s not a lightweight actor and she’s wasted in this part.

Body of Proof is a switch-off-the-brain kind of viewing. I believe several central characters a replaced in series 3, so I might see it through to find out how that works out. Also, Rick Fox makes a guest appearance in series 2 and I HAVE to see that.