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CINEMA SEEN - "Gone But Not Forgotten!" By William Margold I take my television series watching seriously. VERY SERIOUSLY! Indeed...I spend more time studying the latest issue of TV Guide than I do reading the LA Times daily sports and entertainment sections. And I have a specially dedicated-to-TV- watching calendar on my weathered coffee table that is barely decipherable from being marked upon in blue ink---and then marked over in red ink---as each new episode of one of "my shows" airs. This process keeps a very important part of my life on track, and prevents me from being run over by reruns. Having long admitted to being afflicted with STVSA (Severe TeleVision Series Addiction)…I am currently going through a truly traumatic period during which many of "my shows" have either ended their runs...or, as in the cases of PUSHING DAISIES and DIRTY SEXY MONEY, are having their runs ended for them. But I still have (in order of preference) DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, GREY’S ANATOMY, LAW AND ORDER and LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT, PRISON BREAK---plus the mind-boggling LOST and the perpetually pleasing SIMPSONS---to rely on. And although I resisted it at first, I have take a fancy to FRINGE, as it conjures up amusingly eerie images of one of my long gone bedeviling pleasures---THE X-FILES. And apparently, after spending almost 14 years with me---my magnificent Himalayan cat Samson has figured out when I am approachable, and when it is wise to stay away from me---as my "special shows" flicker in the confines of our teddy bear cluttered, obstinately unkempt living room. Recently two of my all-time favorite shows---THE SHIELD and BOSTON LEGAL---came to an end within a week of each other. And Samson could sense that I was very unhappy. VERY UNHAPPY! And he was uniquely aware that my unhappiness was laced with nervous tension and ominous suspense, so he watched me warily from a protective distance, while the final episode of THE SHIELD (Shawn Ryan’s savage cop show on FX) played out, and the fate of TV’s most tortured anti-hero, the pit-bullish Vic Mackey (etched with mesmerizing brilliance by Michael Chiklis) was pigeon holed into a cubicle. But wait...perhaps the warped work of the dirtiest Harry of them all isn’t over yet, as the whine of a police siren was Mackey’s Circesque call back into action. So he burrowed deep into a desk drawer and pulled out a gun. And all of a sudden...perhaps the bad guys out there have someone to really worry about again. And this time Mackey’s cage could extend onto the big screen where he gets to roam free with R-rating impunity. From the first episode, when Mackey kills one of his own (a cop who is informing on his associates), I knew that I was in for a show that was aimed below the belt, that took no prisoners on either side of the badge, and that was going to be like trying to chew beef jerky with broken teeth. Many times...as the conclusion of an episode shattered my senses...I could only shudder a stunned "Wow" before turning off my TV...and then staggering off to my bedroom to try and go to sleep. Sterling supporting performances throughout the run of THE SHIELD were rendered luminously (and appropriately, very painfully)---particularly by the staunchly fierce CCH Pounder, and the unnervingly edgy Walton Goggins. (Both Pounder and Goggins are way overdue for at least Emmy nominations. Chiklis won one for his work during the show’s first season back in 2002.) On the other side of the "farewell to a favorite show" pillow, I can’t remember appreciating Samson any more than I did during the final two hours of the delightfully deranged BOSTON LEGAL. Nestled in my lap, snoring softly, with an occasional rearrangement of his body to remind me that he was there to provide solace, he comforted me as I unashamedly wept my goodbyes to the characters of Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner). David Kelley’s hysterically sensible series about a law firm that took on impossible cases, while palatably preaching a very liberal message, was first and foremost about the remarkable friendship between the two men that transcended affection, admiration and adoration...and became a weekly source of the reaffirmation of life itself. When Shore and Crane sat down on their law firm’s balcony for cigars and fine booze at the end of each episode, they brought a supreme stability of resolve and resolution with them, and in turn they allowed me to reflect on the few "very special" friends that I have been fortunate enough to experience during my existence. And in the warmth provided by my life’s memory logs as they burned brightly in mind, I found even further fortitude that during the final BOSTON LEGAL moments, with the presence of Samson, a feline friend of the highest order, was in my lap. He called me later that year, and we spoke for over two hours (with much of what we discussed winding up in a Men’s Journal article). During our conversation we shared the mutual depression(s) brought on by "our team." But in the end...we both fully realized that we were "Lions fans...’Forever!’" No matter how in the Hell long "Forever!" is. end NOTE: Originally published in LA Xpress, December 25, 2008 issue. |