The Strange World of Thomas P. Coombe

What I've Been Watching: Summer Break Edition

I started a new job last week, and my hours/commute are such that I have a lot less free time than  when...well, I had no job at all.

The blog's been kind of neglected because of that, so I'd like just give a few quick mentions to what's been on my viewing schedule this summer so far.

•  Hell's Kitchen -- The only show of this kind that I watch, for reasons I explained a few months ago. This season's chefs seem a bit more with it than past years...but what do I know? All the same, it's tough to spot a clear front-runner so far. Also: Gordon Ramsay using "doughnut" as an insult never gets old.
• Persons Unknown (pictured) -- Seven people wake up in abandoned town with no clue how they got there, and no way of escaping. Three episodes in, none of the characters have made much of an impression, which is not good. (By the third hour of Lost -- another "strangers tossed together in a weird situation" drama -- nearly everyone had distinguished themselves in some way.) Still, I'm in it for the long hall, if only to see what the hell this is all about.
• The Good Guys -- Completely disposable summer candy about two Dallas cops -- one's by the book, one do I even need to finish this? -- who somehow always manage to stumble onto elaborate criminal conspiracies while working run-of-the-mill theft and vandalism cases. It's goofy and formulaic, but Colin Hanks (button-down) and Bradley Whitford (a wildman 80s throwback) are a lot of fun to watch.
• Party Down -- The best of this lot by a country mile. A smart, very funny sitcom about fame, delusion, and catering, Party Down airs what could very well be its final episode Friday night. If you have Netflix, you can stream the first two seasons, and by all means, do so.

 Tom Coombe

Breaking Bad Finale: Push Comes to Shove

  Before I get into Breaking Bad, I wanted to say a few quick words about Rubicon, the new AMC series that the network chose to preview after last night's finale.

 An unwise choice, really. Rubicon seems like a solid show, and I'm very curious about where it's heading. It unfolds rather slowly, but I get the feeling that, maybe three or four episodes in, we'll be hooked.

 But airing it directly after Breaking Bad's stunning third season finale? Not  a good idea. As a commenter on Alan Sepinwall's blog put it, it was like trying to play chess after being chased by a grizzly bear. 

At the Movies: Splice

 Somewhere in Splice's DNA is the genetic make-up of a "don't mess with science" horror masterpiece on the level of David Cronenberg's The Fly. Unfortunately, it just never quite comes together.

For a sci-fi/horror movie released without a lot of fanfare in the middle of blockbuster season, it's gotten some solid reviews.

 Splice does have a lot going for it. It's got two fine actors (Sarah Polley and Adrian Brody, in an age when a lot of horror movies seem content to go with generic CW heart-throbs) in the lead roles of Clive and Elsa, romantic/scientific partners who create a bizarre new life form using human and animal DNA.

 It has well-developed characters and raises interesting questions about parenting, ethics and science. And although the creature at its center -- Dren, played by French actress Delphine Chaneac -- is one of the most fascinating movie monsters of all time, the movie slowly turns its two leads into even greater monsters. 

 For the first hour or so, Clive and Elsa push all sorts of scientific and ethical boundaries, and it's deeply fascinating to watch. As the third act begins, they -- separately -- cross a moral boundary with their experiment, and the movie doesn't seem to know how to deal with it. 

 In its homestretch, Splice turns into a "run from the monster" movie, and while what happens is horrific, it feels somewhat out of place with the rest of the film. It all leads to a conclusion that seems to scream "sequel," and if that's the case, let's hope director Vincezo Natali will, like all good movie scientists, learn from his mistakes.

 Tom Coombe

Breaking Bad: Barbaric Yawp

 I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable. I sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world. -- 

 Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

 That's Whitman's second appearance this year on Breaking Bad.

 He first showed up in the episode "Sunset," when Walt's former lab partner Gale quoted "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." He was illustrating his antipathy for academia -- something he shared with Walt -- and comparing what they were doing for Gus to a kind of alchemy.

  And during that brief period, Walt could fool himself into thinking he'd entered a magical world, where cooking an addictive poison supplied by a ruthless drug lord was reduced to a matter a pure science.

 This week, Whitman appeared as a clue when Walt and his son watch Jeopardy! and the phrase "barbaric YAWP" reminds Walt of his current, frequently untamed lab partner, and the serious trouble he's in as the episode comes to a close. Of course, saving Jesse from himself means Walt needs to run wild himself, to "break bad" in a way he never has before, in a scene that -- like the ending of "One Minute" a few weeks back -- leaves us shaken.

The Joys of Justified and Its Main Villain

Watching, absorbing and then writing about Lost on Tuesday nights over the last few months has meant not being able to write about another fine show that airs the same night.

 I'm talking about FX's Justified, which has been having a phenomenal freshman year. It airs its season finale next Tuesday night.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the show had initially disappointed some viewers, who expected a more serialized drama rather than a crime-of-the-week procedural.

  (My response: Who cares if it's a procedural when it's the best procedural on TV? And it's nice for once to be able to recommend a show without telling people they need to go to Hulu or iTunes or Netflix or their video store to get caught up first.)

 In the last few weeks, it's begun balancing both the procedural and serialized aspects of its story, before finally switching over to all-serial in the home stretch.

 But no matter how it approaches its story, Justified is a great show for a lot of reasons. 

 First off, the writers have kept the spirit of Elmore Leonard -- smart dialogue, well-drawn characters, varying levels of bad guys and just the right amount of tension -- alive long after the initial story the show is based on had been told.