Mood Music LX: Chilling in the Dark Edition

All in all, my Irene experience wasn't too bad; my power went out on Saturday night and came back on Monday morning. After I cursed the heavens for bringing me so tantalizingly close to the new episode of Doctor Who then yanking it away and stranding me in darkness on Saturday, I weighed my options and decided that a few hours of iPod battery charge was worth trading to combat the soul-rattling creepiness of sitting alone in the dark as wind and rain battered my building. The night's chosen theme: excellent soundtracks from movies set in the seventies.

Velvet Goldmine

The Virgin Suicides

Boogie Nights

Almost Famous

Moffat Influences My Life, Part Two

Part of me wants to add something crazy and/or different to my wardrobe for the fall, just so I can find an opportunity to introduce the "It's a [ ]. I wear a [ ] now. [ ]s are cool." construct in a real-life conversation.

Non-Random Links

For someone interested in black actors and the performance of race, the critical commentary around The Help is like a delicious smorgasbord of mind food. Whether the movie is any good or not (haven't seen it yet, but if my dissertation interests end up going where I think they're going, I'll probably end up seeing it about fifty times whether I want to or not), it's refreshing to see issues of race and representation being hashed out in national publications when they're so often overlooked or swept aside. Some samples:

"The Truth about the Civil Rights Era" by Martha Southgate, from Entertainment Weekly

"Black-and-White Struggle with a Rosy Glow" by Nelson George, from The New York Times (Plus: the trailer for the crazy-awesome-looking The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975)

A statement from the Association of Black Women Historians, with a great list of sources (some of which I've read) that interrogate the historical questions around race and class that they think The Help avoids

Further Thoughts on Television

I moved to a new apartment a few months ago, and had to put my couch in storage, which left me with a few errant pillows with no real place to put them. As I drifted aimlessly around my apartment, looking for a place for my pointless pillow, I suddenly thought, "Steven Moffat was right."

While I clearly like to think and talk a lot about television, that kind of specific writer-associated thought is not something that happens to me a lot. That the same person wrote this and "Blink" seems like as good an argument as any that he should be better known over here. (In all fairness to the academy, I should have noted in my previous post that unlike his terribly deserving actors, Moffat did get an Emmy nomination for writing the first Sherlock episode. Maybe the breakthrough is imminent. Maybe the second series will be so impossible-to-ignore awesome and/or The Hobbit will raise the actors' profiles enough that the show will be showered with laurels next year. We'll see.)

Emmys 2011: Nomination Thoughts

A casualty of three weeks of schlepping up and down the East Coast on planes, trains and automobiles: timely reaction to the Emmy nominations, which were announced mere hours before I boarded one of said trains, sans laptop.

- My Record: Admittedly, I cast a pretty wide net with the "Wouldn't Be Surprised to See" category, but nevertheless, I'm pretty proud of myself. Out of 94 acting nominations, I only missed four: Barry Pepper in The Kennedys (that miniseries did much better, nomination-wise, that I thought it would), Taraji P. Henson in Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story (love her, haven't seen the movie, didn't think she was "big" enough to capture the attention of the voters, who, in the past at least, seemed to disproportionately go for big names and hype independent of actual performance), Idris Elba in The Big C (thought Laura Linney would get that show's only recognition, Elba makes for a low-key odd man out in the category, and part of me thought Darren Criss was kind of a lock), and Kristin Chenoweth in Glee (I'm really disappointed in myself for missing this one - while I think "Rumours" was one of this season's strongest episodes, I think that the dialed-down nature of the writing for April compared to last year made me think that Chenoweth wouldn't get recognized, but that's no reason not to include her in the field. I'm not really sure where my brain was on this one, frankly.)

- My Best Categories: Supporting Actress in a Drama and Supporting Actress in a Miniseries/Movie, where all the actual nominees were either on my ballot or in the honorable mention category; My Worst Categories: Supporting Actor in a Comedy, where zero actual nominees were on my ballot, and Lead Actor in a Comedy, Lead Actor in a Miniseries/Movie and Supporting Actress in a Comedy, where only two actual nominees appeared on my ballot or in honorable mention

- Pleasant Surprises: I was kind of shocked by the number of nominations Justified garnered - obviously, I put a fair number of those actors on my dream ballots, but I never in a million years thought Walton Goggins and Jeremy Davies would actually for real get nominated. Also awesome: Cat Deeley finally receiving the nomination she's deserved since the category's 2008 inception for Outstanding Host of a Reality Program.

- Things That Make Me Go, "Hmmm...": I felt pretty sure it was going to happen (when I saw it on nomination morning, I may have gasped and said, "I KNEW IT!" aloud like a total psycho), and I certainly don't begrudge her the attention or, in principle, have anything against basic-cable procedurals, but I'm kind of bummed that Mary McDonnell got a nomination for her soon-to-be-spunoff role on The Closer and never got one for playing Laura Roslin.

- Unpleasant Surprises: Everyone has shows they love that get totally shafted - this year I'm mourning a bit for United States of Tara - final season, and transcended the trappings of its concept, which too few Showtime shows seem to do - and Community, which had great character work framed by inventive work across all the genres it showcased. But one batch of snubs in particular really get to me.

A few days before the nominations were announced, it suddenly came to me, floating up out of the recesses of my mind. "I bet Benedict Cumberbatch isn't going to get nominated," I thought. My increasingly Anglophilic, television-loving soul rebelled against the very thought. He's so good! I might have scoffed aloud at the theatrical trailer for the Downey/Law sequel because they are so clearly owned by Cumberbatch/Freeman! I might have moaned aloud as if in actual physical pain when I read that PBS's TCA presentation indicated that the new batch of Sherlock episodes won't air in the US until next May! However, my rational, knowledgeable-of-Emmy-history head couldn't forget the dominating performances the academy's voters have overlooked in favor of the comfort of familiar names in the past. And my head, tragically, was right. (Aside: Increasingly Anglophilic also, in part, means "increasingly appreciative of Steven Moffat's talent for genre-hopping." I'm not sure why he isn't more well-known in the US, outside of Doctor Who fans, that is - maybe if the Coupling remake hadn't flamed out the way it did?)

- This Gold Derby post of the episodes submitted for consideration by the nominated actors is very interesting. As much as I love this little exercise, I don't know that I could be an Emmy voter. Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss in "The Suitcase" versus Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton in "Always"? A choice I'm glad I don't have to make.

- I ran out of the necessary energy required to complete the ballot posts on the overall drama/comedy series and miniseries/movie categories before (or even shortly after) the nominations were announced, but will pull together some concluding thoughts on the shows covered by this eligibility period. To be continued...

Idle Thoughts

If Harry's mental connection to Voldemort is a byproduct of his being an inadvertently-created Horcrux, with all the soul-fracturing-and-storing that implies, then were Snape's Occlumency lessons ever really going to work?

This Must Be...Pop

I always think I should post more links to things I read on other sites. (See also: previous post) Such as: the ongoing Ultimate Pop Song Tournament at The Critical Condition. It's fun to read and vote, to see how others comment, to ponder the selection and seeding of songs; for example, while I think "Since U Been Gone" is a perfectly fine song, its high seeding and presence in the total absence of Britney Spears is baffling to me.

You can see to some extent how the age of the bracket-makers leaves some gaps in the field. The overall field of sixty-four skews about 2:1 in favor of songs released between 1980 and 1995, as opposed to 1996 through 2011, which is interesting in that it's prompted me to think about what songs have been formative to my taste in music and what I see as quintessentially "pop." I'm twenty-five now, so I was ideally positioned for pop music's resurrection in the late nineties with the attendant rise of TRL and the introduction of the Now That's What I Call Music series to the US, and thus probably place more importance on the status of the Spice Girls, Hanson and their immediate successors than someone whose formative years were in the eighties would.

Anyway, it makes a pretty solid playlist, suitable for scoring, say, a three-hour drive down the highway with stretches spent sitting in traffic. (She notes, from recent experience.) I love that it's reminded me how much I liked "Not Ready to Make Nice," and prompted me to finally hunt down songs I've waffled over adding to my collection for years, like "What's Love Got to Do With It" and "Edge of Seventeen." It's a compelling project; given the set of parameters - 1980-2011, top 40 charters, one song per artist - how would you select a top 64 (50? 100?) that represented what you understand to be the ultimate in pop music?

Random Links

Been percolating for a few weeks due to intermittent travel.

The excellent interviews conducted by Todd VanDerWerff for The AV Club with Michael Schur concerning each episode of the third season of Parks and Recreation.

A Vulture piece on rumors and discussions around movie follow-ups to TV shows: I think it's all neatly summed up in this quote - "these movies aren't just financially unlikely, they're creatively perplexing."

Mark Harris for Grantland on the MPAA, specifically the ratings associated with swearing

Dan Fienberg for HitFix on showrunners and actors versus the press

A Gold Derby piece, from before the nominations were announced, about series eligibility for the Emmys in different genres, specifically those British shows like Luther and Downton Abbey, which were submitted in Miniseries/Movie but have been renewed for a second series.

Garance Doré with photos from the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was so fortunate to get to see the exhibit when I was in New York last month, even with an hour-and-a-half wait in line to get in! It's unbelievable seeing that kind of artistry and craftsmanship up close; I kept having to firmly shove my hands into my pockets to resist the urge to reach out and touch everything. Doré didn't include any photos from my favorite collection - the gorgeous, meticulously-tailored wool tartan pieces from "The Widows of Culloden" - but her selections offer a glimpse of what made the experience so transporting.

Mood Music LIX

I forgot how much I like this song, until Amazon had one of those delightful deals on The Very Best of Hall and Oates the other week. Now I kind of can't stop listening to it.

Bonus track! I realized while I was driving down the highway the other day that this song is kind of my car-dancing jam.

Quoted

I do think...that over-decorating is a lady thing but with misunderstood origins. It’s like when I wear a dress and someone says, “You’re dressed up today,” and I’m all, “A dress is one choice.” It’s actually less effort. Similarly, I built and stained the bookshelves in my apartment and this actually came up at breakfast with a friend this morning. She said, “You must really not sleep.” And I thought, “I must really not write.”

- Sloane Crosley

Interview from HelloGiggles

Oh, to be in Nerd Heaven

I wish I could've spent the weekend bopping around the San Diego Convention Center instead of roasting in the open-air sauna of the East Coast. I'd still love to go in person someday, but the increasing presence of entertainment media means that you can cobble together somewhat of a virtual attendance from the safety of your air-conditioned home. I particularly love the snarky, self-aware videos shows will put together for their panels. Behold:

As time passes, I appreciate Jeffster in smaller and smaller doses, but this is pretty much the ideal use of their special talents.

Something about Zachary Quinto with the sandwich really cracks me up. (Do I need to say I love Ben Schwartz? I feel like I'm creeping ever-closer to embarrassing Lee-Pace-style gushing there.)

I wasn't a finale-hater, but I still love this. (How excellent is Titus Welliver? In the past TV season, he got sliced all to pieces and had his voice coming out of a stuffed animal. I feel like there should be some kind of special Emmy for something like that.)

Dream Emmy Ballot 2011: Lead Actor in a Drama

Sean Bean - "Lord Eddard Stark", Game of Thrones

Kyle Chandler - "Eric Taylor", Friday Night Lights

Jon Hamm - "Don Draper", Mad Men

Michael Imperioli - "Louis Fitch", Detroit 1-8-7

Donal Logue - "Hank Dolworth", Terriers

Timothy Olyphant - "Raylan Givens", Justified

So...who's got a chance in Bryan Cranston's year off? Is it fair that my love of Bean's performance is partly influenced by having read the books on which Game of Thrones is based? The deeply entrenched sense of honor that guides the Starks, for good or for ill, was firmly established by Bean in every episode of his appearance as Ned Stark, and it should resonate through the series. Chandler, of course, has always been great - the frustrations of intra-team discord and the ever-shifting scene in Dillon showed that he still found new layers in Eric Taylor even up until the end. When I rewatched the last season of Mad Men recently, I was struck by the way that Jon Hamm wore the weight of Don's disappointments in his weariness and shambling drunkenness. He had great showcases in individual episodes like "The Suitcase," but it's really an absorbing full-season performance. I almost hate Imperioli and Logue for making me fall in love with their doomed series; Imperioli showed impressive command over a series of quirks that might have buried another actor and Logue's performance was driven by an engaging charisma that infused every case the show covered with a sense of importance because Hank cared about them. Olyphant is another whose performance beautifully encapsulated the push and pull between a man and his ideas of honor as Raylan wrestled with his darker impulses and his past in Harlan.

Honorable Mention: David Boreanaz, Bones; Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; Vincent D'Onofrio, Law and Order: Criminal Intent; James Badge Dale, Rubicon; Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy; Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead; Holt McCallany, Lights Out; Stephen Moyer, True Blood; Bill Paxton, Big Love

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment; Michael C. Hall, Dexter; Jeremy Irons, The Borgias; Hugh Laurie, House; William H. Macy, Shameless; Christopher Meloni, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; Ray Romano, Men of a Certain Age; Tom Selleck, Blue Bloods

Dream Emmy Ballot 2011: Lead Actress in a Drama

Connie Britton - "Tami Taylor", Friday Night Lights

Julianna Marguiles - "Alicia Florrick", The Good Wife

Elisabeth Moss - "Peggy Olson", Mad Men

Katey Sagal - "Gemma Teller Morrow", Sons of Anarchy

Anna Torv - "Olivia Dunham", Fringe

Jeanne Tripplehorn - "Barb Henrickson", Big Love

Britton has always been wonderful, and the final season of Friday Night Lights was no exception - I particularly loved her scenes with Aimee Teegarden as Tami processed the fallout from Julie's romantic debacle. Marguiles was great all season, but she completely knocked it out of the park in the final episodes after Alicia learned about Peter and Kalinda. Some actors get a single-episode showcase so good that they deserve a nomination solely on those merits - I truly believe "The Suitcase" was an episode like that for Moss, showing Peggy with all her ambition and regret, her anger and wistfulness. Sagal served as an important connective thread throughout a season of Sons of Anarchy that sometimes felt like it was meandering off into tangents, always reinforcing the importance of family - both by blood and by choice. Torv gave shades and nuances that carefully defined the two Olivias as similar but not identical women, and then added a killer Leonard Nimoy impersonation to boot. (If this were the Daytime Emmys, she'd be golden - they love dual roles.) Tripplehorn was the saving grace of Big Love's final season, crafting a beautiful portrait of a woman struggling with deep ambivalence regarding her religion and her faith.

Honorable Mention: Mireille Enos, The Killing; Kathryn Erbe, Law and Order: Criminal Intent; Hayley Hasselhoff, Huge; Lena Headey, Game of Thrones; January Jones, Mad Men; Melissa Leo, Treme; Anna Paquin, True Blood; Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy; Maggie Q, Nikita

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Kathy Bates, Harry's Law; Dana Delany, Body of Proof; Emily Deschanel, Bones; Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters; Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; Angie Harmon, Rizzoli and Isles; Piper Perabo, Covert Affairs; Emmy Rossum, Shameless; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer; Sarah Wayne Callies, The Walking Dead

Dream Emmy Ballot 2011: Supporting Actor in a Drama

Peter Dinklage - "Tyrion Lannister", Game of Thrones

Walton Goggins - "Boyd Crowder", Justified

Arliss Howard - "Kale Ingram", Rubicon

John Noble - "Walter Bishop", Fringe

Denis O'Hare - "Russell Edgington", True Blood

Michael Raymond-James - "Britt Pollack", Terriers

The category which, in my opinion, contains a significant share of the year's best work (A.K.A. the category of Liz's Endless Waffling, A.K.A. much of the reason why these posts are going down to the wire pre-nominations announcement). All six brought wit and a distinct spark to their respective shows. Dinklage did the best kind of adaptation work - the kind that makes you excited when you're reading to someday see the material embodied by the actor. Goggins let Boyd's struggle with his past flicker behind guarded eyes and never made his return to a life of crime feel like a foregone conclusion. Howard's cool made Kale Ingram TV's best espionage-affiliated gentleman since Jack Bristow. Much of Fringe's cast got to show great range in the dual roles dictated by the focus on the parallel universe, but Noble showed Walternate as a fierce villain, while keeping the original's distinctive loopiness. O'Hare pushed True Blood to its campy limits, devouring scenery with glee and making Russell a truly Big Bad. Raymond-James brought an easy charm, with hints of darkness, to Britt, ultimately making him - all apologies to Martin Freeman - the best detective sidekick of the year.

Honorable Mention: Scott Caan, Hawaii 5-O; Justin Chambers, Grey's Anatomy; Rockmond Dunbar, Terriers; Jared Harris, Mad Men; Joshua Jackson, Fringe; Michael B. Jordan, Friday Night Lights; Joel Kinnaman, The Killing; Taylor Kitsch, Friday Night Lights; Ryan Kwanten, True Blood; Matt Lauria, Friday Night Lights; Dallas Roberts, Rubicon; Nick Searcy, Justified; Brent Sexton, The Killing; Alexander Skarsgard, True Blood; John Slattery, Mad Men; TJ Thyne, Bones

Particular props to the ensembles of: Boardwalk Empire (Stephen Graham, Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham, Michael Kenneth Williams); Game of Thrones (Mark Addy, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aiden Gillen, Kit Harington, Jason Momoa); Detroit 1-8-7 (Jon Michael Hill, Shaun Majumder, James McDonald); The Good Wife (Josh Charles, Alan Cumming, Matt Czuchry, Chris Noth); Sons of Anarchy (Mark Boone, Jr., Dayton Callie, Kim Coates, Tommy Flanagan, Ryan Hurst, William Lucking, Ron Perlman, Theo Rossi); Treme (Clarke Peters, Wendell Pierce, Steve Zahn)

Yes, this version of narrowing encompasses forty-five actors beyond the ballot limit.

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age; Billy Campbell, The Killing; Irrfan Kahn, In Treatment; Delroy Lindo, The Chicago Code

Dream Emmy Ballot 2011: Supporting Actress in a Drama

Khandi Alexander - "LaDonna Batiste-Williams", Treme

Emilia Clarke - "Daenaerys Targaryen", Game of Thrones

Christina Hendricks - "Joan Harris", Mad Men

Kelly MacDonald - "Margaret Schroeder", Boardwalk Empire

Margo Martindale - "Mags Bennett", Justified

Sandra Oh - "Christina Yang", Grey's Anatomy

Part of what made Alexander's performance this year so great is the strength she established in the first season of Treme - you could see that woman struggling to reemerge in the wake of the assault she experienced, which then made it feel like a triumph when she finally let her anger flow free in the finale. Clarke and MacDonald both made their characters' journeys away from innocence vital arcs in their respective shows. Hendricks continued to find new depths in Joan as she gained more power in the office but saw her means of handling business become increasingly obsolete. Martindale gave an unbelievably great performance across the season, masking simmering menace with grandmotherly warmth, capped off by a wonderfully Shakespearean exit. Oh got the best material coming out of the trauma of the previous season's finale, and capably handled Christina's emotional distance from the driven surgeon who she used to be.

Honorable Mention: Laura Allen, Terriers; Christine Baranski, The Good Wife; Michelle Fairley, Game of Thrones; Michelle Forbes, The Killing; Mamie Gummer, Off the Map; Lauren Hodges, Rubicon; Natalie Martinez, Detroit 1-8-7; Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife; Sara Ramirez, Grey's Anatomy; Kiernan Shipka, Mad Men; Maggie Siff, Sons of Anarchy; Jurnee Smollett, Friday Night Lights; KaDee Strickland, Private Practice; Aimee Teegarden, Friday Night Lights

Particular props to the ensembles of: True Blood (Kristin Bauer van Straten, Rutina Wesley, Deborah Ann Woll); Big Love (Ginnifer Goodwin, Chloe Sevigny, Grace Zabriskie)

I wouldn't be surprised to see: Lisa Edelstein, House; Amy Ryan, In Treatment; Debra Winger, In Treatment