Month: July 2015

A Few Thoughts about TRANSPARENT

Hey, we understand that Amazon’s TRANSPARENT is a big deal show. Critics love it. It makes us feel. But when all is said, is TRANSPARENT really a sitcom? Is it – wait for it – funny?

transparent headerby Ken Levine

Emmy voting has begun.

TRANSPARENT is a wonderful show. It is filled with rich characters, novel situations, tremendous heart, superb performances, inspired writing, and it courageously tackles a delicate subject with compassion and conviction. It’s far and away the best new show of the current season. read article

Diana Black on Building Dramatic Conflict and Tension

tennis hell

The Tennis Match
by Diana Black

Humans tend to thrive on conflict; without a ‘them’, it’s harder to define an ‘us’. A tennis match or a TV drama; it’s all the same for the observer – how to win and how not to lose – Survival 101. The most memorable of battles are not the slam dunk variety. We want ‘blood’ with a ‘fight to the death’ between two equally matched rivals. We sit on the sidelines with bated breath; licking our slavering chops at the smell of victory or, succumbing to despair with the smell of defeat. No one wants to be a loser.

The classic example of a prelude to the ‘Tennis Match’ comes from Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf(1962). For the illiterate among you, spend a few moments of your precious time viewing the late great Robert Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at their best and most vicious in the characters of George and Martha; the film version directed by Mike Nichols. It’s an ugly yet breath-taking example of just how nasty it can get when the gloves come off in a toxic relationship.

Martha: I looked at you tonight and you weren’t there!… I’m not gonna give a damn what I do…
George: You try and I’ll beat you at your own game.
Martha: Is that a threat, George, huh?
George: That’s a threat, Martha.
Martha: You’re gonna get it, baby.
George: Be careful, Martha. I’ll rip you to pieces.
Martha: You’re not man enough. You haven’t the guts!
George: Total war?
Martha: Total! read article

Diana Vaccarelli sees BANSHEE

BANSHEE

by Diana Vaccarelli

A coworker and I were discussing television and what shows we love to watch. He highly recommended Banshee on Cinemax. After hearing his enthusiasm and love for the show I decided to sit down and watch a few episodes one afternoon.

The series centers on an ex-­convict and master thief who as he assumes the identity of the new Sheriff of Banshee, Pennsylvania. Calling himself by the sheriff’s name, Lucas Hood, the protagonist continues his criminal activities while bringing his own brand of justice to the small Amish town.

The pilot starts with a man leaving prison. He searches for his lost love, Anna, and finds her  hiding in Banshee, PA, married and with two children. Feeling angry and hurt, he goes to the nearby roadhouse for a drink – well, lots more than one drink – and meets the newly hired Sheriff, Lucas Hood – who hasn’t yet checked in and not only isn’t known by anyone in town but hasn’t ever been seen by anyone. read article

Web Series: CLASSIC ALICE

Classic Alice Capture

This web series reached the 1,000,000 views mark a couple of weeks ago, and it deserves every one of them. Here’s why:

Find out all about CLASSIC ALICE HERE

John Ostrander on Making Your Characters Miserable

woodyamiserable

by John Ostrander

Stranger Than Fiction, a 2006 film from director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball, and World War Z, among others), is a favorite of Mary’s and mine. It that starred Will Farrell in a very atypical Will Farrell role, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and Emma Thompson.

The story concerns an IRS auditor named Harold Crick who starts to hear a narrator in his head. The voice turns out to be a world famous author who is writing a story about an IRS auditor named Harold Crick. The author, Karen Eiffel, always kills off her main character at the end of the book. The real Harold’s only hope to survive is to find the reclusive author and convince her not to kill him. Eventually, they meet.

Karen Eiffel, understandably, is freaked to encounter an actual Harold Crick. He’s just as she pictured him. They both know that if she kills him off in prose, he will die in reality. She is confronted with the reality of what she does; Harold Crick isn’t just a creature of her imagination. He’s a flesh and blood person. read article