Great TV

This column has been on a slight hiatus due to travel, some health issues (now mostly resolved), and my homecoming to a still-under-re-construction of my Island paradise.

Not only that, but there is the sad fact that this has been a largely undistinguished year for motion pictures and so, after over a decade of nagging, I finally got my spouse to sit down with me and watch what I believe to be (week after week) the best series ever made for television. It has occupied virtually all our viewing time for weeks.

I will not keep you in suspense; the series to which I refer is Homeland, starring Claire Danes. I know, I know, you have seen it. That’s what everyone tells me. Funny how the research from SHOWTIME, where the show resided for over eight years, indicates an average audience of something under two million television screens. There must have been a lot of Homeland parties with dozens of folks watching on their neighbor’s TV.

Let me simply say, whether you actually saw the show or not, watch it now. It is still great and there is nothing available that I can think of to compete with it (ok… perhaps, West Wing, best Network series ever, as well as two HBO giants, Game of Thrones and Deadwood). At my house we are mid-way through the final season of Homeland as I write this, and I cannot wait for the last episode which, if memory serves, is one of the very best series finales EVER.

Homeland consists of a total of 96 brilliant… and still timely… hours. Magnificently produced, smartly written, and beautifully acted by an outstanding cast led by Ms. Danes with more than adequate support from Mandy Patinkin, F. Murray Abraham, Damian Lewis, Rupert Friend, Morena Baccarin, Elizabeth Marvel, Costa Ronin and, if you take a good look at some of the earlier episodes, you will even see a teen-age Oscar nominee (A Complete Unknown) Timothee Chalamet, as the son of the Vice President of the United States.

I am watching Homeland on HULU with the only caveat being, whoever they acquired their series’ prints from, had at one time inserted commercials, leaving for the Hulu presentation those sometimes abrupt cuts to black where a commercial was once inserted. SHOWTIME didn’t have advertisers, Hulu doesn’t either, but somewhere along the way these episodes were configured to allow for them, making the presentation less than perfect. If you want perfection, you can buy/rent what I believe to be a more pristine version on Amazon Prime.

From the sublime to the ridiculous… or at least the less artful. Let me start with the 50^th Anniversary of Saturday Night Live. The great producer Lorne Michaels should be embarrassed by the show he put on but will at least have the satisfaction of having delivered an audience numbering over 15 million households. I would also guess he might well be pleased by the star power he was able to bring to SNL and NBC over the show’s history and particularly for this 50^th anniversary special.

I will not go into the quality of the humor, or the writing of the show; first off, comedy is a very subjective thing and not my area of expertise. What I do criticize is the lack of basic craftsmanship. Lorne, and the entire NBC crew, should be chastised for the more than poor presentation in something as basic on Network TV as sound quality. It was horrific… and I am not talking about a hearing aid malfunctioning (for openers, I don’t have/use such a thing even though my children and grandchildren all would testify that I ought to)… this was arguably one of the most amateurish technical messes I have ever witnessed on anything approaching Primetime. Buzzing, background noises being presented in the foreground while the principals up front could hardly be heard. It was a mishmash that should never have happened but once it did, needed to be corrected within minutes. It never was.

Regarding a lack of craft, there is Nickel Boys, one of the less than stellar motion pictures nominated for an Academy Award. It is an historical drama of America’s segregated south, and no one can accuse director RaMell Ross of anything but good intentions. But good intentions are not all that is needed. This film has taken the use of “subjective camera” to such an extreme that it makes a statement (intended or not) that the craft of making a motion picture doesn’t count for much. That doesn’t get my vote. Watch it if you must. I am betting you will agree with me.

September 5 is another historical drama that is far better made, but somehow also did not truly float my boat. Maybe it is because I am old enough to remember watching that 1972 Olympic Village event live on TV which, as I recall, was far more dramatic and effective than this representation of that  historical Munich incident.

And, finally, speaking of live historical events on television, Donald J. Trump and JD Vance have pulled off some of the best TV in memory. And what a shame that we had to see it. Perhaps you disagree, but I cannot help but believe that the United States of America will never again be thought of in the same way as it was before this staged ambush in the Oval Office of the Ukrainian President on international TV. I believe it was staged… premeditated by our country’s leaders… in the misguided belief that it would somehow make our country look stronger. How can anyone imagine a single ally in Europe or Asia that will ever fully trust, or rely, on the word of this America again? Frankly, I am not at all sure how that makes anyone but our adversaries “look stronger.” Great TV… but at what cost?

 

 

Barney Rosenzweig