HBO has released a teaser trailer for season two of True Detective. Los Angeles is swapped in for Louisiana, Colin Farrell and Vince Vaughn for Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, and Justin Lin directing instead of Cary Fukunaga. It’s an entirely different show.
A bizarre murder brings together three law-enforcement officers and a career criminal, each of whom must navigate a web of conspiracy and betrayal in the scorched landscapes of California. Colin Farrell is Ray Velcoro, a compromised detective in the all-industrial City of Vinci, LA County. Vince Vaughn plays Frank Semyon, a criminal and entrepreneur in danger of losing his life’s work, while his wife and closest ally (Kelly Reilly), struggles with his choices and her own. Rachel McAdams is Ani Bezzerides, a Ventura County Sheriff’s detective often at odds with the system she serves, while Taylor Kitsch plays Paul Woodrugh, a war veteran and motorcycle cop for the California Highway Patrol who discovers a crime scene which triggers an investigation involving three law enforcement groups, multiple criminal collusions, and billions of dollars.
Update: And here’s a second trailer with a little more info:
From Gawker, a quick two-minute video guide to what all of the characters in Game of Thrones are up to as season five gets underway this Sunday. Major spoilers for those who aren’t caught up through the end of season four.
Someone pretending to be a Parisian hipster who only watches VHS versions of modern shows & movies like Game of Thrones and Interstellar created these VHS covers as an April Fools joke. These are actually pretty great. (via subtraction)
Last night on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took on the topic of government surveillance and traveled to Moscow to interview Edward Snowden. After some softball questions — “Do you miss Hot Pockets?” — Oliver presses Snowden on his personal responsibility with regard to the information he revealed.
Mike Poulton adapted Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies for the stage. The play premiered last year in the UK and just began its run on Broadway here in NYC. There’s a book version of the adaptation that contains some notes that Mantel wrote for the actors playing the various characters. The New York Review of Books has an excerpt of Mantel’s notes; here’s Anne Boleyn:
You do not have six fingers. The extra digit is added long after your death by Jesuit propaganda. But in your lifetime you are the focus of every lurid story that the imagination of Europe can dream up. From the moment you enter public consciousness, you carry the projections of everyone who is afraid of sex or ashamed of it. You will never be loved by the English people, who want a proper, royal Queen like Katherine, and who don’t like change of any sort. Does that matter? Not really. What Henry’s inner circle thinks of you matters far more. But do you realize this? Reputation management is not your strong point. Charm only thinly disguises your will to win.
The BBC aired a six-part TV version of Wolf Hall & Bring Up the Bodies that finished up a month ago, and PBS will start showing it this weekend. I’ve watched all but the last part and it’s really well done.
John Oliver says April Fools’ Day is terrible and we shouldn’t take part in it.
Pranks are terrible. Anyone who claims to be excited for April Fools’ Day is probably a sociopath. Because what they are really saying is, “I cannot wait to hurt the people close to me”.
Halt and Catch Fire season two is starting on May 31! And there’s a five-minute clip to whet your appetite! And it passes the Bechdel test with flying colors!
The exclamation points mean that I am excited for the new season without explicitly saying so!! (via @kathrynyu)
Ask Polly, by Heather Havrilesky,1 is surely one of the best advice columns out there. In yesterday’s installment, Havrilesky adopted the voice of Deadwood’s Al Swearengen to answer a letter about a boyfriend’s troublesome relationship with a married woman.
It sounds like you’re feeling less than your full fucking self, and for good reason! The hour requires some unvarnished words and since you made mention of your passion for Deadwood, David Milch’s brilliant portrait of the Wild West (largely unsung and partially unfinished thanks to some big-city cocksuckers at HBO, who’d sooner brand their own foreheads with a flat iron than allow a man of the pen to complete the masterpiece for which his name will henceforth be praised), I’d like to sally forth in a style befitting the scoundrels, whores, dirt-worshippers, and hoopleheads of that melancholy town. Be forewarned, though, the language herein might lead some to imagine that yours truly has been pillaging Doc’s stash of chloroform, more typically reserved for offering animals a merciful exit from this mortal plane. Suffice it to say that skeptical cocksuckers and those with delicate sensibilities might be well-advised to seek respite elsewhere. You can help your delicate sensibilities by turning the fuck away.
Who I still think of as being from Suck and probably always will.↩
Oh, this sounds fantastic: PBS is set to air a six-hour documentary series, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, starting at the end of March. How have I not heard about this before today?
This “biography” of cancer covers its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the 20th century to cure, control and conquer it, to a radical new understanding of its essence. The series also features the current status of cancer knowledge and treatment — the dawn of an era in which cancer may become a chronic or curable illness rather than its historic death sentence in some forms.
The series is based on Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in the past few years. Ken Burns is executive producing and Barak Goodman is directing.
Thanks to Sarah Klein at Redglass Pictures for letting me know about this. Redglass created a pair of videos for the series featuring Terrence Howard and Ken Jeong talking about their experiences with cancer.
Whoa! Robert Durst has been arrested in New Orleans in connection with the killing of his friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles in 2000.
Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate family, was arrested on Saturday in New Orleans on a warrant issued in a homicide investigation by Los Angeles County, law enforcement officials said.
For years, questions have swirled around Mr. Durst about the unsolved killing of a close friend and confidante in Los Angeles 15 years ago, and about his first wife’s disappearance in 1982 and the shooting and dismemberment of a Texas neighbor in 2001.
Durst is the subject of the HBO series The Jinx, which I have been obsessed with over the past few weeks. The final episode airs tonight. Jinx director Andrew Jarecki must be freaking out…the arrest might be due to new evidence uncovered by Jarecki during the production of the show.
Update: On November 7, 2016, Durst pled not guilty to Berman’s murder.
In my instance, the greatest predator of my work was my one-time partner George Lois, who is a most heralded and talented art director/designer, and his talent is only exceeded by his omnivorous ego. So where it once would’ve been accepted that the word would be “we” did it, regardless of who originated the work, the word “we” evaporated from George’s vocabulary and it became “my.”
Of course, Koenig also claims to have invented thumb wrestling and to have popularized shrimp in America, so… (via @kevinmeyers)
In a long series of tweets last night, Norm MacDonald posted a recap of the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special from his perspective, from how the writing process started, to running into Paul McCartney in the studio, to trying to get Eddie Murphy into a sketch. Gothamist transcribed the whole thing…you should read it, it’s great.
And then comes Eddie. I’m standing with my son, Lori Jo, and Chris Rock. We see Eddie from 100 yards away. Rock says, “There he is. Like Ali in Zaire.” Eddie, Bomaye. It’s my job to talk him in to doing Jeopardy. We talk in his dressing room a good hour. When it’s over, I’m convinced he’ll do it. He doesn’t. He knew the laughs would bring the house down. Eddie Murphy knows what will work on SNL better than any one. Eddie decides the laughs are not worth it. He will not kick a man when he is down. Eddie Murphy, I realize, is not like the rest of us. Eddie does not need the laughs. Eddie Murphy is the coolest, a rockstar even in a room with actual rockstars.
I’ll reiterate: Macdonald obviously did not deserve to be ranked so low on this Rolling Stone list of all the SNL cast members.
Update: Here’s the original SCTV skit (feat. Eugene Levy, John Candy, and Martin Short) that inspired Celebrity Jeopardy.
The SNL 40th Anniversary Special will air this Sunday. From Rolling Stone, a list of all of the regular cast members of SNL, ranked from worst to best. The worst is Robert Downey Jr. (“Making him unfunny stands as SNL’s most towering achievement in terms of sucking”) and the top 10 are:
10. Chevy Chase
9. Gilda Radner
8. Amy Poehler
7. Phil Hartman
6. Bill Murray
5. Dan Aykroyd
4. Mike Myers
3. Tina Fey
2. Eddie Murphy
1. John Belushi
I disagree with Norm MacDonald’s placement near the bottom of the barrel…I always liked his stuff. And Dratch at #16? Was never a fan. Most of the original cast ranks too high…I would have preferred Eddie at #1 over Belushi. My favorites: Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman.
FYI, the guest list for the special is kind of incredible. So far, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Alec Baldwin, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Carrey, Kristen Wiig, Chevy Chase, Chris Rock, Dan Aykroyd, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and about 80 other bold-faced names (Hanks, Taylor Swift, Spielberg, etc.) are all scheduled to appear. (via digg)
On Reddit, a fan of The Simpsons recently outlined his theory that Homer Simpson has been in a coma for the past 20 years and everything on the show since mid-1993 has taken place in Homer’s head. Here’s the argument…
In the series’ first clip show, which aired in the fourth season, Bart pranks Homer by shaking up his beer can in a paint shaker. The beer explodes and knocks Homer into a coma. At the end of the episode, Homer is shown waking up from the coma. But maybe he didn’t? As possible evidence, the theorist suggests that’s why the Simpsons never age:
This is why the characters don’t age. Homer remembers Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as 10, 8, and 1 year old, so they will always appear that way in his dreams. He is subconsciously aware of time passing, so his mind will often “update” his memories so that the year they occurred matches up with the age he thinks he is.
And it’s also why the plots on the show became more outlandish after the coma episode:
This is clearly Homer’s imagination running wild. With no real world restrictions, Homer’s mind is able to dream up scenarios of him and his family in fantasies involving him winning a Grammy, his father fighting his boss for buried WW2 treasure, his wife getting breast implants, his infant daughter saving him from drowning, etc.
That’s pretty clever. It immediately reminded me of two things:
1. The entirety of St. Elsewhere took place inside the mind of an autistic kid named Tommy Westphall. And since St. Elsewhere was referenced on other TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Street, that means those shows (and the shows referenced on those shows) also took place in Westphall’s mind.
2. From 1991 to 1994, a show called Herman’s Head aired on Fox. The show took place partially in the main character’s head. Among the cast are two regular Simpsons cast members: Hank Azaria (Moe, Chief Wiggum, Apu, Comic Book Guy, etc.) and Yeardley Smith (Lisa). Super-crazy theory: perhaps Herman’s Head inspired Homer’s coma?
Update: Of course this theory isn’t true. Al Jean, a writer and show runner for The Simpsons during season four, told TMZ that Homer hasn’t been in a coma for the past 20 years. (thx, greg)
Back in September at the beginning of the NFL season, I wrote a post called I’m quitting football.
I’ve been a steadfast fan of NFL football for the past 15 years. Most weekends I’d catch at least two or three games on TV. Professional football lays bare all of the human achievement + battle with self + physical intelligence + teamwork stuff I love thinking about in a particularly compelling way. But for a few years now, the cons have been piling up in my conscience: the response to head injuries, the league’s nonprofit status, the homophobia, and turning a blind eye to the reliance on drugs (PEDs and otherwise). And the final straw: the awful terrible inhuman way the league treats violence against women.
It’s overwhelming. Enough is enough. I dropped my cable subscription a few months ago and was considering getting it again to watch the NFL, but I won’t be doing that. Pro football, I love you, but we can’t see each other anymore. And it’s definitely you, not me. Call me when you grow up.
So how did I do? I ended up watching four games this season: a random Sunday night game in week 15 or 16, the Pats/Ravens playoff, the Pats/Colts playoff, and the Super Bowl. I’ve been watching and rooting for the Patriots for the past, what, 14 or 15 years now. And more to the point, I’ve been following the Brady/Belichick storyline for almost that long and once it became clear the Pats had a great shot at winning it all, not watching the final acts was just not going to happen, NFL bullshit or not. It would be like putting down one of the best 1200-page books you’ve ever read with two chapters to go and just saying, yeah, I’m not going to read the end of that. And that game last night…I felt *incredible* when Butler intercepted that pass. Life is full of many greater, more fulfilling, and more genuine moments, but there’s no feeling quite like the one when you realize your team has won, especially when that victory has been snatched, semi-literally, from the jaws of near-certain defeat.
But that’s ultimately weak sauce. I don’t feel justified about watching just because I really enjoyed it. I made a commitment to myself and didn’t honor it. I believe the NFL is still a terrible organization and isn’t worth supporting with my attention. For whatever it’s worth, I’m going back to not watching next year, and I hope I fare better.
Update: Bill Simmons, in an epic recap of the final 12 minutes of the Super Bowl, echoes what I was getting at above.
When you’ve been rooting for the same people for 15 years, at some point the stakes become greater. You want that last exclamation-point title. (Just ask Spurs fans.) You want to feel like you rooted for a dynasty, or something close to it, instead of just “a team that won a couple of times.” You want to say that you rooted for the best coach ever and the best quarterback ever, and you want to be constantly amazed that they showed up to save your sad-sack franchise at the exact same time.
I’ve caught a couple of episodes of CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and I’ve been impressed with the show so far. In it, chef/author Anthony Bourdain travels to places off the beaten path and explores the local culture. But it’s not just about food and culture as with his previous shows. In Parts Unknown, Bourdain also delves into local politics and social issues. In Iran, he spoke with journalists about their tenuous relationship with the government (and two of the journalists he spoke with were subsequently arrested). Episodes in the Congo, Myanmar, and Libya are produced with a focus on their oppressive governments, past and present. Even in the Massachusetts episode, he talks about his former heroin addiction and the current addiction of poor whites in the US. Many of the places he visits, we only hear about the leadership and bad things that happen on the news, but Bourdain meets with the locals and finds more similarities amongst cultures than differences. I’d never considered going to visit someplace like Iran, but Parts Unknown has me considering it…what a great people.
Season four recently wrapped up and they’re shooting season five now. The first three seasons are currently available on Netflix and all four seasons are on Amazon. (FYI to the web team at CNN: “Unknown” is misspelled in the
of that page.)
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<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Anthony%20Bourdain">Anthony Bourdain</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Anthony%20Bourdain%3A%20Parts%20Unknown">Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/food">food</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Iran">Iran</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/travel">travel</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2015-01-23T16:24:38Z">Jan 23 @ 11:24 AM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/15/01/transparent-streaming-for-free-tomorrow">Transparent streaming for free tomorrow!</a></h2>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="196" border="0" alt="Transparent Show" /></p>
<p>All day on Saturday, Amazon will be <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I3MNF6S/ref=nosim/0sil8">streaming their acclaimed series Transparent for free</a> (US-only probs) in celebration of the show’s wins at the Golden Globes (best TV series and best actor for Jeffrey Tambor). <a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2009633">Here’s the press release</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>“We’re incredibly proud of everyone involved in the making of Transparent-the team took a risk and it paid off,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Big kudos and congrats to Jill, Jeffrey, and all the cast and crew.”</p>
<p>Written, directed and executive produced by Emmy-nominee and 2013 Sundance Best Director winner Jill Soloway, Transparent is a 10-episode, half-hour novelistic series that explores family, identity, sex, and love.</p></blockquote>
<p>Amazon is also offering a Saturday-only discount <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DBYBNEE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00DBYBNEE&linkCode=as2&tag=0sil8&linkId=LZC5BCCRUT4RQEFE">on 1-yr Amazon Prime subscriptions</a>…$72 instead of the usual $99. I <em>loved</em> Transparent…if you’re not doing anything for 5 hours on Saturday, I recommend hopping on this.
</p>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Amazon">Amazon</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Transparent">Transparent</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2015-01-15T17:59:59Z">Jan 15 @ 12:59 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/15/01/the-new-yorkers-new-tv-show">The New Yorker’s new TV show</a></h2>
<p>TV<sup id="fnref:1421343836"><a href="#fn:1421343836" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> is the place to be. Amazon recently signed Woody Allen up <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/business/amazon-signs-woody-allen-to-write-and-direct-tv-series.html">to do a show</a>. And today, The New Yorker debuts the first episode of their new show on Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00RR12NFK/ref=nosim/0sil8">The New Yorker Presents</a>, complete with a Alfred Hitchcock-esque silhouette on the title card to match the riff on the name of Hitch’s 50s TV program.</p>
<blockquote><p>America’s most award-winning magazine comes to life in this new docu-series. Produced by Oscar & Emmy winner Alex Gibney, the pilot features a doc from Oscar winner Jonathan Demme based on Rachel Aviv’s article “A Very Valuable Reputation,” writer Ariel Levy interviewing artist Marina Abramovic, a sketch from Simon Rich and Alan Cumming, poetry read by Andrew Garfield, and cartoons by Emily Flake.</p></blockquote>
<p>The first episode is free to watch for all. I watched the first five minutes and it’s promising and pretty much what you would expect.</p>
<ol>
<li class="footnote" id="fn:1421343836"><p>Is this what we’re going to call these things, television? How many people actually watch these Amazon shows on a television? Increasingly fewer and fewer, I’d guess. <a href="#fnref:1421343836" title="return to article">↩</a></li>
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<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Amazon">Amazon</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/The%20New%20Yorker">The New Yorker</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2015-01-09T15:42:08Z">Jan 9 @ 10:42 AM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/15/01/steven-soderberghs-2014-media-diet">Steven Soderbergh’s 2014 media diet</a></h2>
<p>Once again, Steven Soderbergh kept track of every book, TV show, movie, play, and short story <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/22-seen-read-2014">he read or watched in 2014</a>. A sampling: Girls, True Detective, Gone Girl, 2001 (3 times), Dr. Strangelove, Olive Kitteridge, My Struggle: Book One, Boardwalk Empire, and <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/18-raiders">his black & white version of Raiders of the Lost Ark</a> (twice).</p>
<p>Here are his lists for <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/12-seen-read-2013">2013</a> (House of Cards, Koyaanisqatsi), <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/9-seen-read-2012">2012</a> (This is Spinal Tap, The Lady in the Lake), <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/7-seen-read-2011">2011</a> (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Senna), <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/5-seen-read-2010">2010</a> (Mad Men, Where Good Ideas Come From), and <a href="http://extension765.com/sdr/3-seen-read-2009">2009</a> (Breaking Bad, Slap Shot). (via <a href="https://twitter.com/khoi">@khoi</a>)
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<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/books">books</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/lists">lists</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/movies">movies</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Steven%20Soderbergh">Steven Soderbergh</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2015-01-06T21:20:34Z">Jan 6 @ 04:20 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/15/01/game-of-thrones-on-imax">Game of Thrones on IMAX</a></h2>
<p>A couple episodes of Game of Thrones <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/game-of-thrones-to-hit-imax-screens-1201393367/">will be shown on IMAX screens</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>An exclusive season five trailer, as well as the final two episodes of the fourth season, will get an unprecedented run Jan. 23-29 at 150 theaters in top markets across the U.S.</p>
<p>While the visual spectacle of the HBO hit makes it a natural for the large-screen treatment, “Thrones” will be digitally remastered to fit the Imax format.</p>
<p>Fans will be able to purchase tickets to the special event for an unspecified price on Imax.com in the coming weeks.</p></blockquote>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Game%20of%20Thrones">Game of Thrones</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2015-01-05T18:30:18Z">Jan 5 @ 01:30 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/15/01/the-sounds-of-the-wire">The sounds of The Wire</a></h2>
<p>You don’t typically think of The Wire as a show that used audio to great effect, but you’d be wrong. From the show’s use of music only ambient to the scene (e.g. a car radio playing), the season-end montages, and the background soundtracks that accompanied certain characters or situations, The Wire’s use of music and sound was quite calculated and effective. At Reddit, <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/TheWire/comments/1qn6ff/i_was_a_sound_editor_on_the_wire_every_episode/">a sound editor who worked on the show shared her experiences</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>One of my crew’s challenges, then, was to find ways to evoke mood with backgrounds. When a character is in a crowded situation he is not comfortable with, listen for background laughter. When McNulty is drunk and on the prowl, listen for dogs barking (because he’s a dog - my own private commentary on his character). There was a whole world of work that went in to creating the sound of Hamsterdam and building it from an empty to thriving enterprise.</p></blockquote>
<p>Working with Felicia Pearson was challenging:</p>
<blockquote><p>Snoop was tricky. That DeWalt scene wasn’t the first time she was in the show (she’s a scout for Marlo the first time we see him in season three maybe?) but it was the most dialog she had up until then, and the HBO note was that she was completely unintelligible. I had her in the studio to do pretty much the entire scene over it felt like, and whenever I had a new actor in the studio, I would always ask (unless I recognized them from something else) if they had done ADR before because “The Wire” used so many non-actors. She said “no ma’am” so I walked her through the process and she did a great job. Stayed in sync, matched her cadence… and sounded exactly as unintelligible as she did on set!</p></blockquote>
<p>But so was Dominic West:</p>
<blockquote><p>McNulty (Dom West) came in often and was awesome, as well. His accent showed most often when the character was drunk or angry. Oddly, the name “Stringer Bell” tripped him up a lot. “Stringa” and then a very over-enunciated end to “Bell-eh.” Also, the words “fuck” and “cunt” came out “feck” and “cahnt” and the only way to break him of it was to stand right in front of him (so he could watch the mouth shape) and say the word over and over again. So a Dom West ADR session often went like this:</p>
<p>Me (with Dom staring at my mouth): Cunt. Cunt. Cunt.<br />
Dom: Cahnt. Shit, do it again, please.<br />
Me: Cunt. Cunt. Cunt.<br />
Dom: Cunt. Cunt. OK, let’s record…<br />
(three beeps, the line starts and):<br />
Dom: …cahnt. Feck! Say it again.<br />
Me: Cunt….</p>
<p>There were some instances where we didn’t bring Dom in for ADR because the emotion and energy of the scene would be compromised if we tinkered with his accent, and I support that decision, but it still pains me to hear those lines and feel like something slipped by me. I was like, the last checkpoint before dialog went on the air.</p>
<p>Which reminds me, the “Fuck” scene (McNulty/Bunk) — when picture came to me, there were only about 30 “fucks” in it. We brought the guys in together and played the scene over and over and slammed a variation of “fuck” everywhere it would fit. I think the final mix tops off at somewhere in the 80 range? My personal contribution was Bunk’s “fuck, fuck fuckitty fuck.”</p></blockquote>
<p>And Michael K. Williams cannot whistle:</p>
<blockquote><p>Michael K Williams cannot whistle! It’s totally true. We brought him in and he tried but it just wasn’t happening. Omar’s whistle is provided by a lovely and talented loop group member named Susan, who is an actor and John Waters’ personal assistant.</p></blockquote>
<p>To which another Redditor replied, “Susan’s coming yo!” The whole thread is great, read it.
</p>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/audio">audio</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/The%20Wire">The Wire</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-31T20:54:12Z">Dec 31 @ 03:54 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/the-top-10-filmtv-title-sequences-of-2014">The top 10 film/TV title sequences of 2014</a></h2>
<p>From the excellent Art of the Title (which had <a href="http://www.artofthetitle.com/news/2014-the-year-in-review/">a great year</a>), <a href="http://www.artofthetitle.com/feature/top-10-title-sequences-of-2014/">the top 10 title sequences of 2014</a>. So awesome to see <a href="http://kottke.org/14/07/halt-and-catch-fire-titles">Halt and Catch Fire</a> take the top spot. And <a href="http://kottke.org/14/11/too-many-cooks">Too Many Cooks</a>!
</p>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/best%20of">best of</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/best%20of%202014">best of 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Halt%20and%20Catch%20Fire">Halt and Catch Fire</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/lists">lists</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/movies">movies</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-29T16:02:32Z">Dec 29 @ 11:02 AM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/black-mirror-sweeps-nation">Black Mirror sweeps nation</a></h2>
<p>If you weren’t watching <a href="http://kottke.org/14/12/the-wire-finally-coming-out-in-hd">the new HD remaster of The Wire</a> over the holidays, you may have been tuning in to Black Mirror on Netflix. Charlie Brooker’s dystopian sci-fi series was broadcast in Britain beginning in 2011 but only recently became available in the US on Netflix. <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/05/button-pusher">Emily Nussbaum reviews the show</a> for the New Yorker’s latest issue.</p>
<blockquote><p>Still, for all the show’s inventive storytelling, its true provocation is its righteous outrage, which shares something with Mike White’s whistle-blower series “Enlightened,” although it’s overlaid with a dark filter. Like “Enlightened,” “Black Mirror” is about love in the time of global corporate hegemony. It’s a bleak fairy tale that doubles as an exposé. An anthology series, it consists of six one-hour episodes spanning two seasons (plus a Christmas special), each with a new story and a different cast. In various future settings, Brooker’s characters gaze into handhelds or at TV-walled cells, using torqued versions of modern devices. In one episode, a couple has sex while stupefied by virtual visions of earlier, better sex. In another, a woman builds a replica of her husband from his photos and posts on social media. In a third, workers watch streaming schlock and are docked points if they shut their eyes. Some plots deal with political terrorism (or performance art-on this show, there’s little difference) and the criminal-justice system; there are warped versions of reality TV. Though the episodes vary in tone, several have a Brechtian aggression: the viral video “Too Many Cooks” would fit right in. But, in even the most perverse installments, there’s a delicacy, a humane concern at how easily our private desires can be mined in the pursuit of profit. The worlds can be cartoonish, but the characters are not.</p></blockquote>
<p>Like Nussbaum, I also watched the show “through occult means”<sup id="fnref:1419866203"><a href="#fn:1419866203" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> and it’s fun hearing from friends who are catching up on it. Too bad the show couldn’t have found a way over here earlier.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> From Josh Dzieza at The Verge, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/31/7471901/i-cant-stop-comparing-everything-to-black-mirror">I can’t stop comparing everything to Black Mirror</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>A friend recently told me that his favorite thing about the show Black Mirror is that he finally has a term for a certain type of technological anxiety. It’s a type of anxiety that seemed everywhere this year. The Sony hack could have been an episode of Black Mirror, as could Gamergate. In the same way that we refer to Blade Runner as shorthand for gritty dystopian cityscapes, Gattaca for worries about corporate use of genetic information, and Terminator for ominously powerful AI, Black Mirror has become shorthand for a certain type of contemporary internet-age creepiness.</p></blockquote>
<ol>
<li class="footnote" id="fn:1419866203"><p>It’s interesting to hear the TV critic for the New Yorker all but admit to pirating shows off the internet.<a href="#fnref:1419866203" title="return to article">↩</a></li>
</ol>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Black%20Mirror">Black Mirror</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Charlie%20Brooker">Charlie Brooker</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Emily%20Nussbaum">Emily Nussbaum</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Josh%20Dzieza">Josh Dzieza</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
</ul>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-17T19:41:11Z">Dec 17 @ 02:41 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/transparent">Transparent</a></h2>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/transparent-show.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="196" border="0" alt="Transparent" /></p>
<p>I’m adding mine to the chorus of voices praising <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I3MNF6S/ref=nosim/0sil8">Transparent</a>, the Amazon Original Series starring Jeffrey Tambor, aka Arrested Development’s Pop Pop. Tambor plays a retired college professor who is transitioning to living as a woman. Each episode is 30 minutes long and the pacing is sitcom-like, but the show is equally comedic and dramatic. The show started off kind of slow for me but got better and better as the season went on. Here’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-3Q2W0I2Xc">a trailer</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I3MNF6S/ref=nosim/0sil8">The first episode is free to watch</a> but for the rest you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription<sup id="fnref:1418843736"><a href="#fn:1418843736" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/promotions/prime.html/?ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1402131587292&ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=0sil8&linkId=ZY2NG542GJXRMOGG">for which they offer a 30-day trial</a>). Highly recommended, Tambor is amazing. Oh, and they’re <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/amazon-orders-second-season-transparent-739481">doing a second season</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li class="footnote" id="fn:1418843736"><p>I wonder how effective this tactic is in driving new Prime subscriptions. It’s weird that you can’t just buy the whole season of the show for $20 or something. I would love to see their internal analysis of how much revenue each Prime member brings in over X number of years versus potential lost revenue from direct sales by non-members. <a href="#fnref:1418843736" title="return to article">↩</a></li>
</ol>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/Amazon">Amazon</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Jeffrey%20Tambor">Jeffrey Tambor</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Transparent">Transparent</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-16T21:47:13Z">Dec 16 @ 04:47 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/unedited-footage-of-a-bear">Unedited Footage of a Bear</a></h2>
<p>Following in the footsteps of <a href="http://kottke.org/14/11/too-many-cooks">Too Many Cooks</a> is Unedited Footage of a Bear. It aired for the first time on Adult Swim this week in their 4am infomercial slot. It starts off as a nature thing with a bear which is interrupted by a fake infomercial and then. Gets. WEIRD.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2gMjJNGg9Z8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Adult Swim has <a href="http://www.adultswim.com/promotions/claridryl/">a site set up for Claridryl</a>. There might be some answers there to some questions you might have? About stuff? (via <a href="http://devour.com/">devour</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/veganstraightedge">@veganstraightedge</a>)
</p>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/video">video</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-15T19:53:27Z">Dec 15 @ 02:53 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/wolf-hall-bbc-miniseries">Wolf Hall BBC miniseries</a></h2>
<p><img src="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/wolf-hall-tv.jpg" srcset="/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=500,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/wolf-hall-tv.jpg 500w, /cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,fit=scale-down,width=1200,metadata=none//plus/misc/images/wolf-hall-tv.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 500px, 1200px" loading="lazy" width="640" height="427" border="0" alt="Wolf Hall Tv" /></p>
<p>Wait, how did I miss this…Hilary Mantel’s excellent pair of novels about Thomas Cromwell & Henry VIII, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312429983/ref=nosim/0sil8">Wolf Hall</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/125002417X/ref=nosim/0sil8">Bring Up the Bodies</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Hall_(TV_series)">are being turned into a six-part BBC miniseries</a>. Outstanding! Noted Shakespearian actor Mark Rylance will play Cromwell with Homeland’s Damian Lewis as Henry VIII.</p>
<p>BBC One will be airing the show in Britain in January while American audiences without access to BitTorrent will have to wait until PBS airs it in April.
</p>
<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/books">books</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Bring%20Up%20the%20Bodies">Bring Up the Bodies</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Damian%20Lewis">Damian Lewis</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Hilary%20Mantel">Hilary Mantel</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Mark%20Rylance">Mark Rylance</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Wolf%20Hall">Wolf Hall</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-15T14:22:14Z">Dec 15 @ 09:22 AM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/every-episode-of-every-star-trek-series-ranked">Every episode of every Star Trek series ranked</a></h2>
<p>Jordan Hoffman is a huge huge huge Star Trek fan. So great is his fandom that he is able to <a href="http://www.playboy.com/articles/star-trek-episode-guide-part-one">rank every single episode from every single Star Trek series from #695 to #1</a>. Several TNG episodes make it into the top 10, including Yesterday’s Enterprise, Darmok, and The Best of Both Worlds.
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<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/best%20of">best of</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Jordan%20Hoffman">Jordan Hoffman</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/lists">lists</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Star%20Trek">Star Trek</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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posted <time class="timeago timeago_short" datetime="2014-12-08T20:46:00Z">Dec 8 @ 03:46 PM</time> by <a href="http://www.kottke.org">Jason Kottke</a>
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<h2><a href="/14/12/best-tv-shows-of-2014">Best TV shows of 2014</a></h2>
<p>kottke.org favorite Matt Zoller Seitz weighs in on <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/10-best-tv-shows-of-2014.html">his top 10 best TV shows for 2014</a>. For someone who doesn’t watch a ton of TV, I have seen a surprising number of these.</p>
<p>My friend David has been trying to tell me about Hannibal, but I haven’t been listening. Maybe I should start? Olive Kitteridge was great; Frances McDormand was incredible. True Detective was pretty good and I was lukewarm on Cosmos (I have NDT issues). Mad Men continues to be great…I keep waiting for it to fall off in quality, but it hasn’t happened. The Roosevelts was really interesting and like Seitz, I find myself thinking about it often. I’ve seen bits and pieces of John Oliver but I get enough of the “humans are awful ha ha” news on Twitter to become a regular viewer.</p>
<p>Other shows I’ve watched that aren’t on the list: Downton Abbey (my favorite soap), Game of Thrones (tied w/ Mad Men for my fave current show, although MM is better), Boardwalk Empire (strong finish), Sherlock (still fun, tho got a bit too self referential there), and Girls (gave up after s03e04 when it was airing but recently powered through rest of the 3rd season and is back in my good graces).
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<ul class="post-tags"><li><a href="/tag/best%20of">best of</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/best%20of%202014">best of 2014</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/lists">lists</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/Matt%20Zoller%20Seitz">Matt Zoller Seitz</a></li>
<li><a href="/tag/TV">TV</a></li>
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