Tuesday, December 2, 2008

January Looks Good To Me


Phew. It's almost 2009. With Thanksgiving over and Jesus Day almost upon us, the whirlwind of the "Holiday" season will come and go with usual flair. ("I can't believe it's Kwanza ALREADY!") I don't know about you, but the post-holiday season tends be a pretty bleak one for me. All that build up for an orgasm of presents, then -- the postpartum sets in and suddenly all those Blu-Rays and presidential biographies you got just aren't enough to get you out of bed in the morning. If Bride Wars or Kevin James' first starring vehicle aren't enough for you... have no fear! This January holds many great and powerful wonders for us all to enjoy:


Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi Channel. Fri, Jan 16. 10/9C)

Only ten more episodes left until "Battlestar Galactica" (BSG) is done forever. If you haven't been watching -- you better frakin' start. This is the best show on television, period. I wish The Sopranos were still on, but it's not. So BSG is crowned #1.

I've tried to get friends, neighbors, even girlfriend to watch, all with various degrees of success. Sure, the title scares people. Yes, it sounds nerdy. No, it's NOTHING LIKE Star Trek. My pitch: "The West Wing in space..." This tends to raise eyebrows, since lots of people enjoyed THAT show (all seven seasons of it!) so the addition of OUTER SPACE is really the deciding factor here. Creator Ron Moore (a Star Trek vet) set out to make a work of science fiction that is decidedly mainstream and accessible. No aliens. No phasers. No "beaming" of any kind. Instead, the show raises the stakes and gives us an alternate universe where man and machine most certainly do not get along. Sci-Fi channel President David Howe recently gave BSG mad props:
"Battlestar Galactica is absolutely our flagship show. It put us on the map and helped transform the perception of the network..." For a channel associated with Stargate: Atlantis, and other mind-numbing made for TV movies, BSG is leaps and bounds ahead of its time.

It's the show's jumping off point -- a war between mankind and the robots (or "Cylons") that they created, that makes BSG ripe with social commentary and relevant issues seemingly plucked from the headlines (a la The West Wing.) Not to mention, the action is grounded in reality (nukes instead of photon beams) and performances that are really fantastic. Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, both Oscar-nominated, stand out amongst a slew of others.

Here's a nifty recap of the show so far and a viral site counting down to the Jan. 16th premier with all sorts of clever misleads and hints as to who the "final fifth" Cylon is. If this piques your interest, check out BSG on DVD. Better catch up over the holidays so you're up to speed for the Jan 16th premier!

Bruce Sprinsteen, "Working On A Dream" ( Tues, Jan 27)

Bruce Springsteen is the busiest man in rock and roll. Since "Devils And Dust" in 2005, The Boss has released an album each year, including a live recording of his 2007 tour with the Seeger Sessions Band. He took to the road in 2008 with his then still-complete E-Street Band (pianist Danny Federici passed away during the tour after a long battle with cancer) After releasing 2007's "Magic," the only album for my money that captured the pre-Obama zeitgeist of Americans both young and old, Bruce wasn't pissed off or apathetic. Instead, the metaphors he deals on "Magic" hold firm with Bruce's America -- a place where the blue collar, the common man, can rise above everyday strife. Take a look at the lyrics for "Long Walk Home"
and you'll understand. Straight from the Boss's mouth:

"
Towards the end of recording 'Magic,' excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing. When my friend producer Brendan O'Brien heard the new songs, he said, 'Let's keep going.' Over the course of the next year, that's just what we did, recording with the E Street Band during the breaks on last year's tour. I hope 'Working on a Dream' has caught the energy of the band fresh off the road from some of the most exciting shows we've ever done. All the songs were written quickly, we usually used one of our first few takes, and we all had a blast making this one from beginning to end."

The title track from "Working On A Dream" is already available for download on iTunes, while another single, "My Lucky Day" is on Amazon for a limited time only.

It's interesting to compare these two singles to the single "Radio Nowhere" from "Magic." While "Radio" was Bruce calling for a revolution, singing about how "spinning 'round a dead dial" was no good for a country in desperate need of change, here he posits: "I'm working on a dream/though it can feel so far away/Sunrise comes/I climb a ladder/I'm working on a dream..." Already Bruce sees the light at the end of the tunnel. And he even WHISTLES on the track! Happy-Go-Lucky Springsteen!

Come January 27th, we'll have a new President in the Oval Office and Bruce will just be coming down from the high of his Superbowl halftime show. When Springsteen endorsed Barack Obama back in April, he said: "After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken." That project doesn't just come from the people in charge, as The Boss knows. "Working On A Dream" is meant to lift the heads of Americans so they can look up and see that light. It's as if Bruce and Barack are in sync and the future looks that much brighter.

Big Love. (HBO. Sun, Jan 11. 9PM)

HBO has relinquished the title of king of the one-hour drama, in my opinion, to channels like Showtime and AMC which have taken it upon themselves to copy the HBO style with hits like "Dexter" and "Mad Men." No longer do greats like "The Sopranos," "The Wire," and "Six Feet Under" reign. But there is one last vestige of hope for Home Box Office ("True Blood" I missed out on, we'll let that simmer for now...) It's "Big Love," the drama about Mormons, returning for its third season.

Bill "Express Elevator To Hell" Paxton plays a man (also named Bill) with three wives and a whole lot of emotional baggage living in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It was amazing to me when I first started watching that a show like this can carry with it such edge-of-your seat stakes. But there's a lot riding on Bill's personal life with his "sister wives" (played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin -- all brilliant) and keeping the fact that his a polygamist a secret from his community. The show is very funny at times and Bill's moral quandry is often a source of will-he or won't-he drama. What's so fascinating is the way HBO has tapped into an often misreprsented religious niche. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints certainly doesn't condone "Big Love" (or much of what's on TV, for that matter) but perhaps they should take another look. Bill and his wives are caring, compasionate, full-bodied characters with a great deal of knowledge of the world around them. And, in keeping with the Tony Soprano "formula" of the conflicted hero, HBO allows for "Big Love" to continue the tradition of high-art TV drama without all the killing and dreamscapes and blackout endings (read: more accessable!)

HBO has posted some pretty nifty "Story-So-Fars" on their official website that should bring all you uninitiated up to speed.

LOST. (ABC. Wed, Jan 21. 9/8C)

I had a conversation with my sister a while ago. She's as big a LOST fan as I am, but she refused to admit that the show falls under the science fiction banner. I thought this was interesting, but I didn't push it. I can hardly get her to even say the word "Lightsaber," let alone wrap her head around the wonderful world of sci-fi. But ABC's hit drama, entering it's second to last season is hands down, undoubtedly, sci-fi. This is why it rocks. I mean, it rocks for a lot of other reasons, but the fact that it warmly embraces the "unknown" and runs with it makes it that much more important. And, with my sister as an example, again brings sci-fi to the masses. Smoke monsters, time travel, prickly scientists, deserted island castaways... all thrown together into a bowl and mixed up a la a Stephen King novel. This is not the sole purpose of the show, of course, but one I feel that serves as a means to an end.

On the other hand, my girlfriend (who knowingly and willingly embraces science fiction, perhaps only to silence my cries of nerd-ness...) sees the show in a different light. I constantly find myself embracing the answer-this-question-with-another-question tendancy that LOST has. When, for instance, last season climaxed with Ben (Michael Emerson) telling his fellow cast aways that the only way to save themselves would be to "move the island" (gasp!) I think I literally shouted with glee. What the fuck did that
mean!?! It didn't matter! It was unexpected and (more importantly) impossible! In the season 4 finale, when they ACTUALLY MOVED THE ISLAND -- I found my girlfriend slowly shaking her head. "What?" I asked. "It doesn't make sense!" she replied. "But honey. It's science fiction..."

Not a good enough explanation for her.

LOST is a show that people put up with or don't. I put up with it because I trust creators Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse with the direction they want to take the story. For a short while (season 3-ish) I didn't. The show meandered... but it's back on track, with an ending in sight. They've capped the thing at six seasons, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

For a two minute sneak peak at the season opener (as well as other good stuff like a Sawyer Nickname Generator; mine's "Shaggy") check out the official site.

President Barack Obama. (Tues, Jan 20.)

So... this is way cooler than all the other shit above. WE GET A NEW PRESIDENT. Way to go America! If there's one person who can trump my favorite shows coming back on the air
and my personal hero releasing another rock album -- it's this guy. Nuff said. Here's to February not sucking.

--Saddam JewSane.