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Bored to Death a fitting name

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

I try to give TV shows a couple of viewings before I decide whether I like them or not.

I’ll be the first to admit that my initial response to ABC’s Castle was wrong. I didn’t like the first few episodes I saw.

Oh sure, Nathan Fillion was just as cute as could be, but the show just didn’t grab me. But about Castle’s fourth episode, I had a sea change and began to like this light drama about a mystery writer who helps the NYPD. (And how cool was Michael Connelly’s guest appearance in the season opener?)

Jason Schwartzman and Zach Galifianakis. HBO photo

I doubt I’ll change my mind about the new HBO series Bored to Death, even if Michael Connelly would make an appearance. (No, he’s not.) It airs at 9:30 p.m. Sundays on HBO with frequent encores.

Bored to Death has been …well….boring.

This comedy about Jonathan Ames, a Brooklyn writer who can’t write his second novel. His girlfriend just left him; he drinks too much and runs around too much with his magazine editor who smokes too much pot.

It’s all too much

Because he can’t face reality, Jonathan moonlights as an unlicensed private detective so he pretend to be one of the heroes he loves from classic detective novels.

Couldn’t he have just wrote to DorothyL about the character he’d like to be for a day and be done with it?

Jason Schwartzman is charming as the lost Jonathan. Ted Danson is wonderfully smarmy as the insecure pot-smoking editor who seems to think that because Jonathan works for him the writer also is being paid to be his friend. And the HBO execs must be cheering that they landed Zach Galifianakis as Jonathan’s friend Ray Hueston, a comic book illustrator. Galifianakis showed his comedy chops in last summer’s The Hangover and he is quite funny in Bored to Death.

Despite the good cast, Bored to Death doesn’t rise above a mediocre comedy. It doesn’t capture the heart of private detective novels and it just isn’t funny. HBO has a much better track record than this for original series that grab viewers. Think The Wire, Entourage and a dozen other HBO series.

Bored to Death is on opposite Dexter, which begins at 9 p.m. Sundays on Showtime. Even with Dexter’s frequent encores, there’s no contest.

Posted in TV Mysteries, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Life stops

Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Life was the most underappreciated and overlooked cop show on TV.

It’s almost met the ax twice – once because of the writers’ strike and once because of low ratings. It was to have been reprieved again for this new season, but in August finally met its end.

The third time wasn’t the charm to resuscitate Life.

Life starred Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews, a cop who was sentenced to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. With an unfathomable settlement of millions of dollars, Crews was released and returns to the force.

While he continued to try to find out why he was framed for murder, the real pleasure of this show was watching as Lewis pulled Crews into a Zenlike approach to solving crimes.

Crews’ calmness hide a rage that he constantly battled.

While other cop shows used technology, crime scene investigation and the friction between the police and lawyers, Life took a cerebral approach.

The solid cast included Lewis, a Golden Globe nominee for Band of Brothers; Sarah Shahi (Rush Hour 3) as Dani Reese, Charlie’s partner; and Adam Arkin (Chicago Hope) as Crew’s former cellmate Ted Earley.

Life will be missed.

Posted in TV Mysteries, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Visit Oxford with Inspector Lewis

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

It’s been a few years since I walked the lovely, narrow streets around Oxford University in England – until, that is, last Sunday’s return of the Inspector Lewis mysteries on PBS.

And what a welcomed return for these literate, intelligent mysteries.

Running as Masterpiece Mystery!, the Inspector Lewis series is scheduled to air Sunday nights through Oct. 18 on PBS. Check your local listings.

Inspector Lewis (played by Kevin Whately) began as the working-class sergeant to Inspector Morse in the long-running series based on Colin Dexter’s crime novels. Morse’s death nearly retired Lewis as he was supposed to make only one solo appearance before going into oblivion. Fortunately, the producers were attuned that Inspector Lewis was popular on his own.

The new Masterpiece Mystery! series marks Inspector Lewis’s return to Oxford, now with his own sidekick, the frequently called “dishy” James Hathaway (Laurence Fox).

As befitting the Oxford setting, Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats and “the other boys in the band,” as the Romance poets were called during the first episode, and other literary figures are sure to pop up during the investigations.

The first episode focused on Percy Bysshe Shelley and was even called “And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea,” which comes from Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy. Can’t get much more literary than that unless it’s when Hathaway loves to quote Shakespeare, whether it’s appropriate or not.

Hathaway’s smart mouth also often comes into play at just the right time. You know that Inspector Lewis doesn’t know whether to smile or slap him such as when a janitor’s body was found in the archives. “At last,” said Hathaway, “we’ve found a body in the library.”

“And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea” was a tightly plotted episode that included a math professor who teaches blackjack and assignments on how to use math when betting and a phony tour of secret Oxford that included a crocodile in the waters; a bango-playing J. R. R. Tolkien).

Tonight’s episode will revolve around Wagner, boxing and
East Germany’s fall.

The Inspector Lewis series works well because the characters are so believable and the far-flung plot threads eventually mesh into a cohesive story that links Oxford’s history with its present.

I don’t need to return to Oxford when I have Inspector Lewis as my guide.

PHOTO: Laurence Fox as DS Hathaway and Kevin Whately as Inspector Lewis; photo courtesy PBS

Posted in TV Mysteries, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Arnaldur Indridason’s Jar City on TV

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

Ever since Lawrence Block’s Bernie the Burglar series was filmed as the dreadful Burglar, I’ve been leary of mysteries being made into movies.

Fortunately, the filmed versions of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and, hopefully, the upcoming Shutter Island have changed those misgivings.

So in that vein, I am excited that the filmed version of Icelandic author Arnaldur Indridason’s Jar City is now being shown on the Sundance Channel.

Jar City, filmed in 2006, will air at 11 p.m. Wednesday Aug 19 and then again on Saturday Aug. 23. Check out the Sundance Channel’s schedule.

When it was released, Jar City received quite good reviews. The New York Times called it “vivid and powerful.”

A comment on imdb.com, stated that Jar City could be “an episode of “CSI: Reykjavik” .”

Jar City also was quite popular in Iceland. In one year more than 83.000 people saw the movie. The total population of Iceland is 300.000. That bit of info came from our next-door neighbors who are Icelandic. (A shout out to Thor and Erla.)

Arnaldur Indridason also is popular.

In 2003, he had five novels on the Icelandic best-sellers list for a week, the only author other than J.K. Rowling to simultaneously hold the top three spots. In 2004, he sold 100,000 copies of his mysteries. That’s the year that his novels were seven of the 10 most popular titles borrowed from the Reykjavík City Library. Then there are his awards – two Glass Keys, a Swedish Caliber and the Golden Dagger.

A few years ago, I interviewed Arnaldur Indridason for Mystery Scene. (Issue No. 97, Holiday, 2006)

During our interview, we discussed Iceland as a setting for crime fiction, how he uses the history of the country in his novels and the changes the country has undergone.

Arnaldur’s novels are written in Icelandic. He has a good relationship with his English translator who also lives in Reykjavik. “He represents the books the way I write them,” he told me during the interview.

We also talked about the literacy rate in Iceland. Nordic and Scandinavian countries are known as being nations of avid readers, and Iceland is no exception, having also produced a number of authors.

Iceland also has one of the highest literacy rates in the world at 99.9 percent.

“Icelanders read a lot, and all kinds of books,” said Arnaldur during the interview. “They love good writing, poetry, anything. They are open to new things and are willing to find new authors. We are proud of our writers because literature is our contribution to the world. We’ve been writing books since the 10^th century with the Icelandic sagas. And those books are still hugely popular. Books matter very much in Iceland.”

I am most interested in how Jar City, which I liked very much and which made my best of the year, translates to the screen.

Then I’ll compare notes with my neighbors.

(For a bit more about Jar City, visit my Off the page blog.)

Posted in Arnaldur Indridason, TV Mysteries | 2 Comments »

Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Is there ever a time when some Law & Order episode isn’t playing?

It’s almost like comfort food, TVstyle.

Can’t sleep? There will be a Law & Order on at 2 a.m.

Bored on a raining Sunday afternoon? How about a SVU marathon?

It’s a formula show, but one that still can surprise the viewer with its twists. A parade of top-noth actors, many of whom have solid stage careers, keeps the casts superior.

Just when I think I’ve seen every Law & Order episode, a new one pops up. After all, the original has been running for 19 years. I am sure I have missed at least one.

While I love character-intensive series — both TV and printed — I think one of the reasons that the Law & Orders survive is that we don’t have to get involved with the characters.

The revolving door of the original Law & Order has seen to that, giving us just a smattering of who those characters are. We know more about the histories of the Special Victims Unit detectives.

Here, plot is paramont.

My favorite Law & Order is Criminal Intent on the USA Network. For me, it’s the unpredictabilty of the plots and that the lead characters have depth that we may never know fully.

I’ve always been a big fan of Vincent D’Onofrio. I consider him one of those actors who challenge the audience, making the viewers meet him half way.

Chris Noth, who is now off Criminal Intent, and Jeff Goldblum also bring a different dimension to this version of Law & Order.

The women on Criminal Intent deserve special attention. Kathryn Erbe and Julianne Nicholson are as tough and vulnerable as their male counterparts. These two skilled actresses — Erbe comes out of the Chicago Steppenwolf theater company — enhance Criminal Intent.

Do you have a favorite Law & Order series? And why do you think this series — in each of its versions — survives?

Photos: Vincent D’Onofrio, top; Kathryn Erbe. USA photos

Posted in Criminal Intent, Kathryn Erbe, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, TV Mysteries, Vincent D'Onofrio | 2 Comments »

Harper’s Island: Slash a Minute

Friday, July 31st, 2009

It’s all over but the critiques, so be forewarned that this post has spoilers in it.

I was intrigued by Harper’s Island when I first heard about it. A wedding party was going to a remote island off the coast of Washington. One by one they would be murdered until the final week, when the killer would be revealed. The show promised that at least one person would be killed every episode and that the cast and crew did not know the next episode until the scripts were distributed.

It obviously reeked of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, who in 1939 published a novel of 10 people stranded on an island where a killer is bumping them off one by one to match a nursery rhyme.

Within the first ten minutes, you got the feeling that this was more Saw or Friday the 13th than a gentle homage to Christie. The bride’s cousin is missing and the camera slowly glides under the boat, where Cousin Ben is tied to the propeller shaft. Of course, as soon they decide to leave without him, they really are without him.

The plot revolved around Abby who was returning to the island for the first time since her mother was murdered by madman John Wakefield. She has a strained relationship with her father, the island’s sheriff, and she left a boyfriend who still carries a torch for her.

By the end of the first episodes (which are named after the sound the victim makes at death – “Gasp”, “Gurgle”, “Seep”), we’d also lost Uncle Marty and seen the beginning of a “superman” type killer than can avoid gunshots at close range.

By the third or fourth weeks, it appeared that Harper’s Island was about to meet the same fate as the cast of characters. The network pulled it from the Thursday night schedule and moved it to the graveyard that was Saturday night at 9pm. However, apparently enough people with DVRs were caught up in the show that they didn’t pull it altogether.

The saga continued, revealing that John Wakefield was still alive, that he’d had a child with Abby’s mom and that it was likely that this child was assisting Daddy in this homicidal spree. The body count continued too, as cast members were decapitated, harpooned, hung, sliced in half, and set on fire. Despite the continually shrinking cast, the main characters didn’t seem to notice that anyone was missing until about episode 5 when the bride’s father is killed by a booby-trapped chandelier.

Too much time was spent searching the island by characters who — in 2009! — still want to split up and take their chances alone against an insane killer. Too little time was spent developing the characters, so that in many episodes there was no incentive to root for any particular victim. It wasn’t until the penultimate week, when fan favorites Cal and Chloe died in a confrontation with Wakefield, that people really began to care about the victims.

Unlike the Christie novel and subsequent movies, the producers of Harper’s Island indicated that no characters would return from the dead. This was a bad idea, in that the ever-shrinking cast had to include the killer. In And Then There Were None, the number of suspects always stood at 10, no matter who was killed. On Harper’s Island, the number of suspects shrank each week, until guessing who did it was not all that difficult.

By the end, many people had honed in on the key clue, which was that only two people are really responsible for the selection of where the wedding takes place. Granted, I had my money on the wrong one, but by then the show was gone.

Having said that, the show did a good job of not leaking the killer’s identity until the very end. Harper’s Island appeared in Canada on Thursday, and the plot was revealed then to those who couldn’t wait, but before that point, there were no leaks from the show.

The producers had expressed interest in doing a series of mysteries like Harper’s Island, but given the tepid response, that seems unlikely. The show itself was the last victim of its killers.

Posted in Agatha Christie, Harper's Island, TV Mysteries | 4 Comments »

Burn Notice still on fire

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

I’ve been thinking about television lately.

This was prompted when I recently finished a mystery that kept me going, that was filled with action and had good characters, both good and villains.

But what bothered me was that the lead character hasn’t really grown or changed or been affected by all the death that has surrounded this character through the years.

I enjoyed the novel. I would recommend it. But there was something lacking for me.

Which got me to thinking about TV and what draws us back to TV series year after year.

For me to stick with a program, year after year, the characters have to change, have to grow.

Take Buffy the Vampire Slayer — one of the best TV series ever.

Buffy changed each year as did her Scooby gang. The Buffy at the end of the series was not the same Buffy at the beginning. To use horror as a metaphor for teenage angst was brilliant.

Along the same lines, that’s why I am enjoying this season of Burn Notice (9 p.m. Thursdays on USA Network).

Burn Notice is down to its last two episodes for this season. Burn Notice is about Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan, left) a spy who was burned, or fired, during an assigment. He acts as a quasi private investigator while trying to find out why he was burned.

Here’s another look at Burn Notice at the other blog I write for the Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.

While the premise has remained the same for three seasons, and a couple of mini seasons, each season also has given us new perspective on the characters.

This season, Burn Notice has looked more at the “spy business.” More action doesn’t neglect the characters. Bit by bit, we’ve learned that Michael’s father was abusive and that his mother, played by the wonderful Sharon Gless, had to be stronger than strong.

But I really want to know what made Fiona and Sam the way they are.

Oh well, there’s always next season.

(Next up, I’ll discuss Law & Order and other TV series.)

Posted in Burn Notice, TV Mysteries | No Comments »

Vampires: Why do we love them?

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

I love vampires.

Who doesn’t?

There is something in this myth that taps into so many themes of both literature and life.

Certainly sex and violence are at the top, but there are also the deeper issues of loneliness, of the masks that each of us put on to face the world, of trying to fit into our place in the world.

From Dark Shadows to Charlaine Harris’ wonderful Sookie Stackhouse series, if it has a vampire in it, I am there.

That’s why the new BBC America series Being Human has such an appeal. It taps into each of those themes I mentioned above.

And even a bit more.

Being Human is about three 20something roommates in London — two men and a woman — trying to find their spot in this world, build a career, find love, and find out who they really are.

But any similiarities to Friends or Three’s Company or How I Met Your Mother ends pretty quickly.

The roommates are Annie, a ghost; Mitchell, a vampire, and George, a werewolf.

Judging from the sneak peek I saw, Being Human is funny, heart-wrenching, clever and realistic. And, oh yeah, there’s some sex and violence, too.

The humor as well as the emotion comes from the ways that the three try to deal with and surpress their supernatural sides while also just leading normal lives. They also are trying to be moral in a world that is immoral.

Annie bores the pizza delivery man because she is so giddy that he can see her. George — mild mannered and tongue tied around women — just cannot get a date. Mitchell — hunky, brooding — has too many woman falling all over him.

Being Human airs at 9 p.m. Saturdays on BBC America with encores. Check your local listings.

Photo: Being Human with George (Russell Tovey), Mitchell (Aidan Turner) and Annie (Lenora Crichlow). BBC America photo

Posted in Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Mysteries, TV Mysteries | 1 Comment »

The lost Agatha Christie, Kate Stine’s discussion

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

I am beginning to believe that each prolific author has a whole treasure trove of lost manuscripts just languishing in a chest somewhere.Now new work by Agatha Christie has been discovered. According to The Bookseller.com, two never-before-seen Hercule Poirot short stories by Agatha Christie will be revealed in a new book to be published by HarperCollins this fall.

The stories, which will be published in Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making, were found inside 73 notebooks discovered at Greenway, Christie’s family home in Devon, when the archive at the National Trust property was being established.

Secret Notebooks will include short story The Mystery of the Dog’s Ball, which was eventually reworked into the novel Dumb Witness, but unlike other Christie short stories-turned-novels it remained unpublished, states The Bookseller.com. The other story, The Capture of Cerberus, was written to complete The Labours of Hercules, a collection which followed the 12 cases Poirot chose to end his career, adds The Bookseller.com. Christie eventually scrapped the story and wrote a different version, with the same title, again according to The Bookseller.com, which has more of the story.

The news of the lost Christie work couldn’t be more timely.Through July 26, PBS is airing Six by Agatha, a half-dozen whodunits by the famed British author. (Check your local TV listings for the times and date) Starting the week of July 5, Mystery Scene Editor in Chief and co-publisher Kate Stine will be answering questions at the Barnes and Noble Agatha Christie TV discussion. Kate’s knowledge of Agatha Christie reaches beyond her role at Mystery Scene. For about five years she was the director of the Agatha Christie Society. Kate will be answering questions during the week of July 5 as part of the teaming up of PBS Masterpiece MYSTERY! And BN.com to give the viewers and readers access to experts connected to each of their programs.If you sign up for the Masterpiece e-newsletter for program alerts, you can be entered to win a set of “Six by Agatha” books.Christie fans — and that includes a lot of us — should enjoy Kate’s session.

PHOTO: Miss Marple ‘They Do It With Mirrors’ with Julia McKenzie (left) as Miss Marple and Joan Collins (right) as Ruth van Rydock. Photo courtesy PBS

Posted in Agatha Christie, Miss Marple, TV Mysteries | No Comments »

Burn Notice still heating up

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

This is how mystery fans – whether in novels, movies or TV – help each other: We are shameless about introducing our friends and family to new works.

Several months ago, I mentioned to Kate and Brian about this terrific new television show I was enjoying called Burn Notice. It’s a spy show, sure, but it is also a witty detective show; a bit The Rockford Files, a bit MacGyver.

So Kate did what any good editor does – she asked me if I wanted to do a review.

And I did what any good critic does, I wrote one.

Which, she tells me, inspired Kate to watch the series and, yes, become a fan.

Burn Notice is about Michael Weston (played by Jeffrey Donovan), a spy who was fired – or got his “burn notice” — during a covert sting operation. Without money or a government agency to back him, he’s forced to make his own way after being dumped in his hometown of Miami. His only backup are Fiona Glenanne, (Gabrielle Anwar) a former girlfriend who cut her arms-dealing teeth in the I.R.A., and Sam Axe, (Bruce Campbell) a retired spy who’s not above informing on Weston, especially if a free dinner and drinks are on the agenda. There’s also a brother who’s had more than a few scraps with the law and a mother (Sharon Gless) who clearly adores Michael but also knows how to manipulate him.

Burn Notice mixes wide swaths of humor with a serious plot and a breathtaking view of South Florida. To make a living while trying to find out who “burned” him, Weston plays private detective.

Right now, Burn Notice is wrapping up a mini season with the finale set for March 5.

The original episodes air on the USA Network at 10 p.m. eastern time/9 p.m. central time on Thursdays; with numerous repeats during the week.

Filming for the third season begins March 1 with the 16 episodes airing this summer.

TOP: Gabrielle Anwar, Jeffrey Donovan. USA Network photo

Posted in Burn Notice, TV Mysteries | 4 Comments »

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