Sunday, 02 June 2013
A Farewell to Southland

southland_reginaking
I had been planning to write a blog about this season of TV dramas that have intrigued me.

But before I could begin my essay, it was announced that one of my top shows, Southland, has been canceled.

And Southland deserves its own essay.

While I was a fan of Southland from the first episode, I can’t say I am surprised that TNT has decided not to review the police drama for a sixth season.

Southland ran for one season on NBC before TNT picked it up for four more seasons.

While its low ratings improved on TNT, Southland always was hanging by a thread, never quite achieving the following of The Closer, Major Crimes or Rizzoli & Isles.

Southland also was probably the best drama that most people never saw.

southland_ben2
Last year’s new cop show Southland seemed to signal a new turn in police drama. Southland’s gritty, realistic approach harked back to Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Streets – dramas that were believable and felt almost unscripted.

And we did feel as if we were watching a documentary rather than actors who included Ben McKenzie and Regina King.

Southland’s plots turn on the little dramas and big problems that the cops endure daily, both professional and personal.

It was easy to be drawn into the characters’ personal lives that affected their professional lives.

southland_johnBen McKenzie left far behind his days on The O.C. On Southland, he played Ben Sherman who started the series as an idealistic rich boy wanting to make a difference. His descent into becoming a corrupt cop was disheartening to watch, yet felt realistic and added to the show’s tension.

Regina King’s Detective Lydia Adams began the series torn between pressure on the job and at home where she is her mother’s primary caregiver. Then she became a single mother juggling her son and her mother.

The most intriguing character was intense veteran John Cooper, superbly played by Michael Cudlitz. A tough man, a lonely man, an excellent cop, a rage-filled man, John Cooper also was gay. As he once said, “being gay is not my problem.” And wasn’t.

southland_regina2
The scriptwriters and producers were careful to show John’s problems came from various sources but never his sexuality.

This last season saw John put through tremendously harrowing situations that chipped away at his sanity.

Cudlitz was excellent in this role, turning in Emmy-worthy performances week after week. He showed pain and world-weariness in each movement.

This season’s last episode and, as it turns out, the series’ finale wrapped up some plot threads but also had an ending that could be taken several ways.

I wanted the next season to start with hope, that what we think happened didn’t happen.

But perhaps that wouldn’t have been real and Southland was all about realism, as gritty as it could be.

PHOTOS: Top: Dorian Missick, Regina King; Second: Ben McKenzie, Shawn Hatosy; Third: Michael Cudlitz; Bottom: Regina King, left, Dorian Missick, right. TNT photos

A Farewell to Southland
a-farewell-to-southland

southland_reginaking
I had been planning to write a blog about this season of TV dramas that have intrigued me.

But before I could begin my essay, it was announced that one of my top shows, Southland, has been canceled.

And Southland deserves its own essay.

While I was a fan of Southland from the first episode, I can’t say I am surprised that TNT has decided not to review the police drama for a sixth season.

Southland ran for one season on NBC before TNT picked it up for four more seasons.

While its low ratings improved on TNT, Southland always was hanging by a thread, never quite achieving the following of The Closer, Major Crimes or Rizzoli & Isles.

Southland also was probably the best drama that most people never saw.

southland_ben2
Last year’s new cop show Southland seemed to signal a new turn in police drama. Southland’s gritty, realistic approach harked back to Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Streets – dramas that were believable and felt almost unscripted.

And we did feel as if we were watching a documentary rather than actors who included Ben McKenzie and Regina King.

Southland’s plots turn on the little dramas and big problems that the cops endure daily, both professional and personal.

It was easy to be drawn into the characters’ personal lives that affected their professional lives.

southland_johnBen McKenzie left far behind his days on The O.C. On Southland, he played Ben Sherman who started the series as an idealistic rich boy wanting to make a difference. His descent into becoming a corrupt cop was disheartening to watch, yet felt realistic and added to the show’s tension.

Regina King’s Detective Lydia Adams began the series torn between pressure on the job and at home where she is her mother’s primary caregiver. Then she became a single mother juggling her son and her mother.

The most intriguing character was intense veteran John Cooper, superbly played by Michael Cudlitz. A tough man, a lonely man, an excellent cop, a rage-filled man, John Cooper also was gay. As he once said, “being gay is not my problem.” And wasn’t.

southland_regina2
The scriptwriters and producers were careful to show John’s problems came from various sources but never his sexuality.

This last season saw John put through tremendously harrowing situations that chipped away at his sanity.

Cudlitz was excellent in this role, turning in Emmy-worthy performances week after week. He showed pain and world-weariness in each movement.

This season’s last episode and, as it turns out, the series’ finale wrapped up some plot threads but also had an ending that could be taken several ways.

I wanted the next season to start with hope, that what we think happened didn’t happen.

But perhaps that wouldn’t have been real and Southland was all about realism, as gritty as it could be.

PHOTOS: Top: Dorian Missick, Regina King; Second: Ben McKenzie, Shawn Hatosy; Third: Michael Cudlitz; Bottom: Regina King, left, Dorian Missick, right. TNT photos

Wednesday, 29 May 2013
Michael Connelly on Journalism, Novels

connellymichael2_author.jpg
Back in 1992, Michael Connelly hit the ground running with his debut The Black Echo, which won the Edgar Award for best first novel and introduced L.A.P.D. detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

Since then, Connelly has won just about every literary award and Harry Bosch has become one of crime fiction’s most iconic characters worldwide.


More than 20 years later, Connelly has written 25 novels and one nonfiction book that have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated in 39 languages.

Connelly’s last novel, The Black Box paid homage to those two decades by having Harry involved with a case in which a recent crime is linked to a crime back in 1992. The Black Box came out in December.

Connelly’s next novel The Gods of Guilt comes out this December and will feature attorney Mickey Haller.

Meanwhile, Connelly talked about his journalism career and his novels during an interview, which was a fundraiser for the Broward Bulldog, an online investigative journalism site. Follow this link for the interview.

It’s a pretty interesting interview, even if I do say so myself.

Michael Connelly on Journalism, Novels
Oline Cogdill
michael-connelly-on-journalism-novels

connellymichael2_author.jpg
Back in 1992, Michael Connelly hit the ground running with his debut The Black Echo, which won the Edgar Award for best first novel and introduced L.A.P.D. detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch.

Since then, Connelly has won just about every literary award and Harry Bosch has become one of crime fiction’s most iconic characters worldwide.


More than 20 years later, Connelly has written 25 novels and one nonfiction book that have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated in 39 languages.

Connelly’s last novel, The Black Box paid homage to those two decades by having Harry involved with a case in which a recent crime is linked to a crime back in 1992. The Black Box came out in December.

Connelly’s next novel The Gods of Guilt comes out this December and will feature attorney Mickey Haller.

Meanwhile, Connelly talked about his journalism career and his novels during an interview, which was a fundraiser for the Broward Bulldog, an online investigative journalism site. Follow this link for the interview.

It’s a pretty interesting interview, even if I do say so myself.

Sunday, 26 May 2013
Walt Longmire Back in Print, Tv

johnson_craig2
May is a big month for Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire novels.

A Serpent’s Tooth, the ninth in his series about the Wyoming sheriff, just hit the bookstores and reading devices.

Longmire, the TV series based on Johnson’s novels, begins its second season at 10 p.m. (EST) Monday, May 27, on the A&E Network.

We caught up with Johnson to discuss his novels and the TV series.

What myths about Wyoming do you hope your novels dispel?
You always hear about the West being a place where people take care of their own problems and that everyone stands alone, but the history of Wyoming doesn’t really indicate that. In the most desolate areas of the frontier, even today, people count on each other more than they do in cities. In urban areas people have the resources so that they can ignore each other, but in ranching communities people depend their neighbors more—just try and have a calving or a branding by yourself… I think that’s why I made my protagonist, Walt Longmire a sheriff—he’s emblematic of a community that works together.

johnsoncraig_serpentstooth
Are there issues unique to Wyoming that you explore in your novels?
Sure, we have some fairly unique issues here connected to the energy business, ranching and tourism, but my secret weapons are Wyomingites who can be a strange bunch and are pretty proud of it. People always ask me if I ever worry about running out of ideas and I always ask them, “You’re not from Wyoming, are you?”

You also do well in other European countries? Any ideas why?
I think it’s the same reason as with the French; there is still a romantic allure to the American West; open spaces like Wyoming just don’t exist in Europe and for them the idea of vast, uninhabited space is ultimately intriguing.

What is the oddest or funniest think you’ve come across in researching your novels?
Generally it’s the stories I get from sheriffs and sheriff deputies from all over the country. With the popularity of the books and the TV show, I get a lot of stories from those guys and I have to come clean and tell you that the more outrageous tales in my books are true. Inevitably, somebody will write me and say, “That story on page 167 is a little over the top, don’t you think?” And I tell them, “Well meet Sheriff Goody Pickering of Big Horn County, Montana, who actually had that happen.”

Westerns in film and on TV seem to have vanished but mystery authors such as yourself seem to be keeping the American western alive. Why do you think the western is thriving in fiction?
Well, there’s one TV show that’s doing pretty well… (Longmire was the highest-rated, scripted drama in A&E’s network history) I don’t know about thriving in fiction, but if there is such a thing I think it’s a case of readers looking for something different; you can turn on the TV or roam through a bookstore and see 50 New York or Los Angeles novels for every one that takes place in the West. It might be that people are getting tired of the CSI/Armani-suit thing. But I think it always comes down to the writing; if you try and write the best book you can, readers might be more inclined to respond no matter where it’s set.

You always manage to add a good dose of humor to your novels. Why?
Anybody who’s ever had a tough job knows that’s how you get through the day; sometimes it’s just a question of laughing or crying. Walt Longmire is a truly tough guy, and the toughest people I know have the keenest senses of humor.

What makes you laugh?
My wife, Judy, she’s the funniest person I know—scathing, but funny.

How did you come up with the character of Walt Longmire?
I was looking for the guy who I could count on—Walt Longmire is the man I want pulling up behind me from running off the highway in a blizzard or worse.

Are there any changes you wished you’d made to Walt’s character but are now part of the series and can’t change?
Nope, not a one.

What kind of feedback do you get from your readers?
The emails I get most are the ones telling me I’m beating up on Walt too much and need to take it easy on him in the next book. The other is, “There was not enough of (insert Henry Standing Bear, Vic Moretti, Lucian Connally, Dog, etc.) my favorite character in your last book.

How different from the novels is the TV series?
Not a lot, other than they backed up their point of entry into the stories a few years before my first book, The Cold Dish—that, and everybody is better looking than the people in my head…

Has the TV series drawn on plots from your novels?
Bits and pieces, some more than others, but what I appreciate is that when the do borrow plots from my books they change the endings, that way the books and the TV show don’t take anything away from each other.

Walt and Henry are Wyoming natives, but why bring in a city slicker like Vic?
I thought the books needed an urban voice, something to put in counterpoint to the dominant rural chorus of the books, and I have to admit that it was one of the smartest things I did; that, and surrounding Walt with an ensemble of strong-willed females.

Some authors have had tours created around their characters’ environment. Will we ever have a Walt Longmire tour of Wyoming?
There are already some smaller ones from some of the local colleges, chambers of commerce and the Wyoming Office of Tourism—but anybody is welcome to show up in Buffalo, Wyoming and have lunch at the Busy Bee on Main Street.

Is there a book – fiction or nonfiction – that is a favorite?
About Ed Ricketts, the forward to Steinbeck’s Log of the Sea of Cortez. It’s only about sixty pages long, but I love it.

Walt Longmire Back in Print, Tv
Oline Cogdill
walt-longmire-back-in-print-tv

johnson_craig2
May is a big month for Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire novels.

A Serpent’s Tooth, the ninth in his series about the Wyoming sheriff, just hit the bookstores and reading devices.

Longmire, the TV series based on Johnson’s novels, begins its second season at 10 p.m. (EST) Monday, May 27, on the A&E Network.

We caught up with Johnson to discuss his novels and the TV series.

What myths about Wyoming do you hope your novels dispel?
You always hear about the West being a place where people take care of their own problems and that everyone stands alone, but the history of Wyoming doesn’t really indicate that. In the most desolate areas of the frontier, even today, people count on each other more than they do in cities. In urban areas people have the resources so that they can ignore each other, but in ranching communities people depend their neighbors more—just try and have a calving or a branding by yourself… I think that’s why I made my protagonist, Walt Longmire a sheriff—he’s emblematic of a community that works together.

johnsoncraig_serpentstooth
Are there issues unique to Wyoming that you explore in your novels?
Sure, we have some fairly unique issues here connected to the energy business, ranching and tourism, but my secret weapons are Wyomingites who can be a strange bunch and are pretty proud of it. People always ask me if I ever worry about running out of ideas and I always ask them, “You’re not from Wyoming, are you?”

You also do well in other European countries? Any ideas why?
I think it’s the same reason as with the French; there is still a romantic allure to the American West; open spaces like Wyoming just don’t exist in Europe and for them the idea of vast, uninhabited space is ultimately intriguing.

What is the oddest or funniest think you’ve come across in researching your novels?
Generally it’s the stories I get from sheriffs and sheriff deputies from all over the country. With the popularity of the books and the TV show, I get a lot of stories from those guys and I have to come clean and tell you that the more outrageous tales in my books are true. Inevitably, somebody will write me and say, “That story on page 167 is a little over the top, don’t you think?” And I tell them, “Well meet Sheriff Goody Pickering of Big Horn County, Montana, who actually had that happen.”

Westerns in film and on TV seem to have vanished but mystery authors such as yourself seem to be keeping the American western alive. Why do you think the western is thriving in fiction?
Well, there’s one TV show that’s doing pretty well… (Longmire was the highest-rated, scripted drama in A&E’s network history) I don’t know about thriving in fiction, but if there is such a thing I think it’s a case of readers looking for something different; you can turn on the TV or roam through a bookstore and see 50 New York or Los Angeles novels for every one that takes place in the West. It might be that people are getting tired of the CSI/Armani-suit thing. But I think it always comes down to the writing; if you try and write the best book you can, readers might be more inclined to respond no matter where it’s set.

You always manage to add a good dose of humor to your novels. Why?
Anybody who’s ever had a tough job knows that’s how you get through the day; sometimes it’s just a question of laughing or crying. Walt Longmire is a truly tough guy, and the toughest people I know have the keenest senses of humor.

What makes you laugh?
My wife, Judy, she’s the funniest person I know—scathing, but funny.

How did you come up with the character of Walt Longmire?
I was looking for the guy who I could count on—Walt Longmire is the man I want pulling up behind me from running off the highway in a blizzard or worse.

Are there any changes you wished you’d made to Walt’s character but are now part of the series and can’t change?
Nope, not a one.

What kind of feedback do you get from your readers?
The emails I get most are the ones telling me I’m beating up on Walt too much and need to take it easy on him in the next book. The other is, “There was not enough of (insert Henry Standing Bear, Vic Moretti, Lucian Connally, Dog, etc.) my favorite character in your last book.

How different from the novels is the TV series?
Not a lot, other than they backed up their point of entry into the stories a few years before my first book, The Cold Dish—that, and everybody is better looking than the people in my head…

Has the TV series drawn on plots from your novels?
Bits and pieces, some more than others, but what I appreciate is that when the do borrow plots from my books they change the endings, that way the books and the TV show don’t take anything away from each other.

Walt and Henry are Wyoming natives, but why bring in a city slicker like Vic?
I thought the books needed an urban voice, something to put in counterpoint to the dominant rural chorus of the books, and I have to admit that it was one of the smartest things I did; that, and surrounding Walt with an ensemble of strong-willed females.

Some authors have had tours created around their characters’ environment. Will we ever have a Walt Longmire tour of Wyoming?
There are already some smaller ones from some of the local colleges, chambers of commerce and the Wyoming Office of Tourism—but anybody is welcome to show up in Buffalo, Wyoming and have lunch at the Busy Bee on Main Street.

Is there a book – fiction or nonfiction – that is a favorite?
About Ed Ricketts, the forward to Steinbeck’s Log of the Sea of Cortez. It’s only about sixty pages long, but I love it.