Mood Music LXIII

The lyric "I am the eggman" coming on while I was actually physically separating eggs made me giggle. Some days you have to take your levity wherever you find it.

Movie Stuff Release Valve

I feel like I need a repository for the things that I find that are tangentially related to the class for which I'm currently a TA (tangentially mainly because the class ends in 1960, so similar topics but 2011 examples) because it seems like a decent percentage of the job of leading a discussion section is trying to actively resist the group's impulse to wander off on marginally relevant tangents.

Last week we learned about the introduction of Technicolor and the different processes and changes in filmmaking involved in its inception, an evolution that starts to feel sort of cyclical when you watch the discussions here of what goes into a full-scale implementation of 3-D:

An interesting HitFix piece from Drew McWeeny about the MPAA's ratings system and his opinion of its general uselessness.

And, because the class discussion of the Production Code and its tenets reminded me of it: Freakazoid's take on the ratings system.

Guest Starring Role Realness

Between this and Terriers last season, I'm trying to decide what the third show is that Shangela needs to appear on to complete a Cult Television Trifecta.

Week in TV: October 30-November 5

Boardwalk Empire, 2.6: "The Age of Reason"

- There have been a lot of quiet scenes of serious, bone-deep loneliness this season - Richard's scrapbook, the stilted conversations of the Van Aldens - but nothing compares to the heartbreaking sequence of Lucy realizing what was happening and then gathering herself together to give birth alone. It seemed like the show relied a lot on Paz de la Huerta's established persona to build Lucy's character in the first season, but I think she's really done a great job with the more subdued material of this storyline.

- It's a small role, but I really like the performance Anatol Yusef is giving as Meyer Lansky. To the extent that BE ever functions as a sort of a biopic, it's what I think of as the ideal biopic performance - aware of the mythos without being overly reliant on it. There are just brief flashes here and there where you can say, "Oh, yeah, I can totally see this guy being a major player in revolutionizing American organized crime," but I never feel beaten over the head with it.

Sons of Anarchy, 4.9: "Kiss"

I know it's not really a flashback kind of a show, but I'd really love to see SOA take a look back at the early years of the Gemma-Unser relationship. (I'm sort of envisioning a West Wing "Two Cathedrals"-style setup.) What kinds of interactions did the cop and the wild daughter of Charming have back in the day that earned her such enduring devotion from him?

Revenge, 1.7: "Charade"

- I don't envy the people working on the upcoming Dallas reboot for TNT - Revenge has been bringing the primetime soap back with a vengeance (heh, no wordplay intended) and even if New Dallas is amazing, it seems likely that Revenge will totally steal their thunder. The introduction of Stripper Emily and the Nolan-Tyler blackmail hookup collectively showed that the show has transcended the pseudo-procedural revenge-of-the-week setup in only a few episodes.

- I know it's still a bit of a ways off, but what happens when the summer is over? The Graysons aren't year-round Hamptons residents, right? I'd like to think that the show will just continue on to other locales where the wealthy vacation - a season in Aspen or Palm Springs or wherever - but who knows?

American Horror Story, 1.5: "Halloween, Part 2"

- Finally, finally, a ghost tells one of the Harmons directly that they need to do some research. (In this case, one of Tate's apparent victims incredulous at Violet's ignorance of the situation.) The most frustrating thing about this show to me so far has been the Harmons' bizarre lack of curiosity regarding the house and its sordid history. If I was considering moving into a house and the realtor told me the previous tenants had died in a murder-suicide, I would Google That Business. Immediately. The further incidents of a) a stranger claiming to have burned his family to death in said house, b) a home invasion based around recreating events of a famous dual murder in said house and c) the Murder Tour of Los Angeles bus pointedly making a stop IN FRONT OF SAID HOUSE would prompt me to, again, Google That Business. Maybe take a trip to the library and spend some quality time with the Los Angeles Times on microfiche. It's difficult to feel bad about any of the terrible things happening to the protagonists when they seem so determined to face it all with as little helpful information as possible.

- Okay, so it's a major part of the story that the family doesn't have enough money to move, right? Then how do they have enough to afford that tricked-out security system with the prompt, personalized service?

- Interesting to see that Tim Minear wrote this episode - something about the tone reminded me a bit of his Angel episode "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been." Indeed, he wrote some of the most interesting flashback-based episodes under the Mutant Enemy banner - "Darla" for Angel, "Out of Gas" for Firefly and "Omega" for Dollhouse - which suggest that he's got a skill set well-suited to this show's particular universe and mode of storytelling. It wasn't the most suspenseful of the episodes that have aired thus far, but it was the first that made me curious to learn more about any of the characters (as opposed to previous episodes, which made me curious to see what sort of random insanity would get thrown up on screen the following week).

Miscellaneous Links:

- Shout-out to this week's A.V. Club Inventory on unexpectedly scary episodes of generally non-scary shows for including the episode that most readily came to mind for me: the Scream-based episode of Boy Meets World. (#10 on the list) "And Then There Was Shawn" is one of my all-time most memorable television-watching experiences, because it scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I was over at a friend's house when I saw it, and it marks the only time I can remember having to call home to be brought back from a sleepover during the night. I was wracked with paranoia for months afterward - I constantly checked behind doors to make sure no slashers were lurking and every time I got left alone at home I would just sit tensely in my room, jumping at every little creak, convinced that I was mere moments away from being murdered. Honestly, even though I've gotten older (and at this point, actually watched the real Scream without incident) and accumulated more experience with genre fiction, I'm still wigging a little bit just thinking about it.

Week(s) in TV: Miscellaneous Links

- Not really about TV, per se, but I liked the excerpt the New Yorker posted from Mindy Kaling's upcoming book.

- Called it!

- Normally, I try not to get too worked up about announcements of development deals for pilots - so many pilots get made that never make it onto the official TV schedule. But I couldn't help but let out a squeal at the news of Lee Daniels working on a series based on Valley of the Dolls. a) Valley of the Dolls is pure campy awesomeness, and while I haven't seen any of the adaptations besides the 1960s film version with Patty Duke and Sharon Tate, that movie doesn't touch on half of what's in the book; b) the book could easily serve as the basis for a television series - it spans a decade or so and actually paints an interesting portrait of postwar New York and the entertainment world, touching on theater, movies and television; if shows like Playboy Club and Pan Am are any indication, a central character like Anne is exactly what the networks are looking for; c) Daniels, at least in his first film Shadowboxer, has shown a distinct flair for bringing balls-out craziness to the screen, which I think is really key to adapting VotD faithfully.

- Another interesting announcement came in the buzz around producers working on pulling together a black-cast Steel Magnolias for Lifetime. It was clear fairly shortly into The Help's run in the theaters that it would be the kind of project studios would try to imitate or replicate for their own profit, and at least on its face, this seems like an inspired tack to take. If they can get the kind of cast they want for the project, it will get awards attention and could be a game-changer for Lifetime's image.

Week in TV: October 23-29

Boardwalk Empire, 2.5: "Gimcrack and Bunkum"

- In a media landscape that's often lacking in diversity, I feel like BE deserves props for making the cabal of Atlantic City elders backing the Commodore feel like the oldest, whitest group of old white men anywhere on television. Truly an accomplishment among stiff competition.

- Great interview with Jack Huston from The Daily Beast; the work he's been doing this season is mesmerizing, and really showcases BE at its best.

Revenge, 1.6: "Intrigue"

There are many things to enjoy about this show, but I'm currently really digging Ashton Holmes, Tyler's weird creepiness, and the fact that they've kept his motives fairly oblique; does he want to bang Daniel, replace him in the Grayson family, or murder him and wear his skin? (Maybe all three, not necessarily in that order?) Love it. I was kind of convinced that the shooting that opened the pilot is actually connected to the mentioned-infrequently-but-just-frequently-enough-to-clearly-be-relevant waitress relationship gone bad rather than Emily's revenge plot, but I'm willing to give a percentage of that theorizing over to "Tyler finally snaps." Good stuff.

American Horror Story, 1.4: "Halloween, Part 1"

I think this week really highlighted a central flaw in the show, particularly if the plot heads where it appears to be heading: the most interesting people in any given episode tend to be the former residents/current ghosts. If the seemingly inevitable horrific murder (murder-suicide?) of the Harmons comes to pass, they aren't currently compelling enough for their potential future haunting to seem like an interesting prospect. At the end of the episode, I wasn't concerned about the ostensible protagonists. I was thinking, "Damn, I hope we get some sort of cross-era ghost interaction so there are at least a few scenes of Zachary Quinto and Lily Rabe going crazy on each other, over-the-top Tennessee Williams-style."

Once Upon a Time, "Pilot"

Grimm, "Pilot"

Two takes on fairy tales, neither of which grabbed me right out of the gate. I preferred Grimm's darker take on the material, just because it seemed to owe more to the gorier original stories as opposed to the more clearly Disney-influenced versions in Once Upon a Time (and, honestly, when you're introducing a show like this in 2011, I think you need at least a dash of that kind of self-awareness and to contend with your source material in as nuanced a manner as possible), but I don't think I'm up for what looks to be a more procedural structure in the less whimsical show. I'm more curious to see where Once Upon a Time goes for a while, particularly whether the flashback structure holds up, and whether a long-term strategy for sustaining compelling storytelling emerges. The stated goal of Emma ultimately defeating the Queen and breaking the curse seems like a decent endpoint, but only if there's as little wheel-spinning as possible in the journey to get there.

Random TV Love

How did I not realize sooner that Skins was on Hulu (now through the fourth series), and therefore available for me to excerpt and embed scenes like the following selection from the second episode that essentially marks the exact point where I became totally obsessed with the show?:

Look out, world. There's totally a "My 10 15 20 Favorite Things from Skins" post coming at you.

Mood Music LXII

Trailer Thoughts

I was excited about this movie anyway, but this trailer just kicked that excitement up tenfold. A significant part of that initial excitement came from my own pre-existing affection for Juno, but I like that the trailer doesn't oversell any commonalities this might have with any of Reitman or Cody's prior work. The use of "Queen Bitch" is just perfection. And there's something I absolutely love about that Diet Coke she's holding in the scene in the Macy's - like, that's the little touch that really says "full-tilt public breakdown."

Mood Music LXI

Week in TV: September 18-24

Good lord, TV. I am only one person!

How I Met Your Mother, 7.1: "The Best Man" and 7.2: "The Naked Truth"

My patience for this show's mythology shenanigans has grown so thin, but something in me just can't give up on it. The plan going in was to mostly let episodes just sort of accumulate on the DVR and watch them in blocks, and nothing I saw in this hour really dissuaded me from that position. (I'm going to be time-shifting like a fiend this year. Lots of moves to Friday and Saturday afternoon and evening.)

Sons of Anarchy, 4.3: "Dorylus"

I'm so curious to see where they go with the plot point of Juice's secret background. SOA does Imitation of Life!?! (It's brief, but Sutter wrote an interesting blog post about the upcoming storyline.)

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, 13.1: "Scorched Earth"

It's interesting - they seem to have done so much to try to shore up the show to compensate for Christopher Meloni leaving that this episode felt much more focused than others I've seen from the past few years. Ultimately, I wonder if the show didn't wait too long to start introducing new detectives into the mix (as opposed to when Criminal Intent started rotating D'Onofrio with Noth), but Kelli Giddish fit in well in this episode. And while it feels a bit manipulative, I was a big fan of the last detective/ADA quartet of OG Law and Order, so I'm glad to see Linus Roache back as Michael Cutter. As premieres go, they put together a fairly solid argument for Meloni's departure not being the incentive to abandon viewership that it originally seemed.

The Playboy Club, "Pilot"

- This show was both not as bad as I thought it would be and not as good as it could be. And while the potential for a better show lies somewhere among its multiple storylines, I fear its association with a still-existing corporate entity means that there won't be an incentive to find and cultivate that better show. It could find depth in deconstructing the tightly corseted facade of the Bunny. Instead it persists in glorifying an imprecisely-defined concept of empowerment, introduced not by one of said empowered women, but in the voice of "Hef" as a shadowy Big Brother figure. It's like someone read Enlightened Sexism and took it as an instruction manual instead of a criticism.

- Reviewers keep bringing up Mad Men in comparison with this show, and certainly that show's current place in the zeitgeist undoubtedly had an impact on getting this show greenlit. But the show that came more immediately to mind watching this was American Dreams - not only because of the performance from "Ike and Tina Turner" (another missed opportunity in contrasting image and experience?) but also due to the similarities between Hefner and Dick Clark, their presence as shadowy background figures on the show and their presumed behind-the-scenes ability to influence how they're depicted. I only hope Playboy Club grows to encompass the kind of scope that American Dreams did.

- Fall TV Footnote! Gloria Steinem's website put up a PDF of her famous undercover piece about working at New York's Playboy Club. (The points made in the show's voiceover sound suspiciously similar to the P.R. she cites and ultimately rejects as presenting a false picture of how Bunny life really is.)

Unforgettable, "Pilot"; Person of Interest, "Pilot"; Prime Suspect, "Pilot"; A Gifted Man, "Pilot"

Ah, network dramas. None of these was bad or offensive, and each one has at least one actor who I like, but life's too short to accumulate crime procedurals. I'll definitely give Prime Suspect another episode or two, and I'm so wiped out on Friday nights this semester that I may keep up with A Gifted Man (or, as I started calling it in my head midway through the pilot, Dude Providence) at least until Chuck starts.

Charlie's Angels, "Pilot"

I think a go-for-broke, full-tilt camp remake of Charlie's Angels could be sort of fun, but, unfortunately, this is not that show. The tone was way too serious for the core premise, and it made the whole show feel like it was aiming for a portentousness that was never quite there. And as much as I love Victor Garber, I think he was missing a bit of the warmth that John Forsythe had in his voice work as Charlie.

2 Broke Girls, "Pilot"; Whitney, "Pilot"

Watched them, can't even really think of anything germane to say about them, not getting added to the schedule.

Miscellaneous Links

- Interesting piece from Wired on Dan Harmon - I feel like every interview I read with him makes me worry about his health.

- The A.V. Club has really been stepping it up a notch with their series of showrunner interviews. This week's set with Louis C.K. really showcased how much he thinks about every aspect of Louie from script to screen, and how much cachet he's built up among comedians and other artists.

Week in TV: September 11-17

True Blood, 4.12: "And When I Die"

Maybe I'll come back to this one? Like much of the season, this episode was mostly kind of dull. And what was exciting about it (in the last ten minutes) seemed to pretty blatantly be setting up plot points for Season Five. Which is all well and good, but that's nine months from now. Mostly, what I'm left with is: OMG REVEREND STEVE!!!!!

Sons of Anarchy, 4.2: "Booster"

- I really dig the mutual disdain Potter and Roosevelt have for Jacob Hale. Just another quality that adds to the general vibe of "The time of nutbag ATF agents is over".

- I love Rockmond Dunbar anyway, but that Do The Right Thing reference put it over the top for me. (If I let my TV geekery wander a bit, it's an interesting line to borrow - originally spoken by Giancarlo Esposito who, of course, is now appearing on Breaking Bad as Gus. Who, like SAMCRO, is having his own issues with a Mexican cartel (not that the SOA writers would've known that when they put this together)).

Ringer, "Pilot"

- I wanted to like this episode much more than I did. They loaded both characters with a host of problems, which are not the same thing as personalities, and declined to capitalize on Sarah Michelle Gellar's best trait as an actress in keeping the dialogue so low-energy. It could be a good guilty-pleasure show if they double down (no pun intended) on the campy possibilities of the story. Something about it makes me hope for that trajectory, even if it seems against the odds.

- The one aspect of this episode that I found really interesting was the subplot of Bridget attempting to maintain her sobriety while masquerading as her sister.

- So what's the over-under on how long it'll take for them to bring in someone else from Buffy? I'm thinking November sweeps, by which time it will likely be clear whether the show will make it past the original thirteen-episode order. I vote for Emma Caulfield - I think she could make a quality snooty rich lady.

Up All Night, "Pilot" and Free Agents, "Pilot"

A pair of shows that need time for their ensembles to gel. Up All Night has a great central cast, and I think the pilot showed that there's a clear sense of what the show is and what differentiates it from shows like Modern Family and Raising Hope. Free Agents wasn't terrible, but there was a definite air of humor lost in translation - watching it, I kept thinking, "Oh yeah, I can see how this probably worked better in Britain." I'm interested to see where the former show goes, but the latter never grabbed my attention the way I wanted it to.

The Secret Circle, "Pilot"

I don't know whether I'll ultimately stick with this show - CW programs always end up creating DVR issues for me - but not because this episode didn't pique my interest. They established a decent number of characters in the hour, and hinted at the potential for deep mythology and background, so I'm not averse to watching further weeks. At the very least, light shows (especially teen soaps) are a good accompaniment for morning coffee.

Miscellaneous Links

- Besides the football thing, this is pretty much how I feel this time of year. (from Hanna)

- I didn't watch H8R (even I have limits), but the reviews by Dan Fienberg and Todd VanDerWerff were a couple of the best things I read this week. Good TV-critic rants are truly priceless.

Week in TV: September 4-10

Sons of Anarchy, 4.1: "Out"

- The few reviews I've read of this premiere emphasize this season returning the focus to the club as it functions in Charming as opposed to the more wide-ranging search for Abel last year. While I'm looking forward to the return to that scope of storytelling, in this episode I was most excited to see the show introduce new antagonists (and, at least based on their first appearances here, specifically non-crazy antagonists) for SAMCRO. By the end of last season, Stahl became too manic and desperate, to the point that, while it didn't rob the triple-cross in "NS" of its dramatic weight, it felt inevitable that her all-consuming desire to entrap the club would come back to bite her in the ass. And Hale's death left the show with a void regarding a practical, reasoned perspective on the club and their role in Charming. I also come in already liking Rockmond Dunbar and Ray McKinnon, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how the show uses them across the season's arc.

- Not only was Ryan Hurst great in infusing the wedding scene with just a hint of sadness, but the show demonstrated a lot of respect for the audience's ability to retain information in letting that subtle undercurrent of grief be the episode's most direct reference to Donna. Semi-Related: I also love Lyla's tacky wedding platforms.

- They're awfully fond of musical montages on this show, with this episode bookended by them, so this EW gallery with Kurt Sutter and Paris Barclay breaking down the one that closed out "Out" was an interesting glimpse into that particular creative process.

The Hour, "Episode Four"

- I've enjoyed this show from the beginning, but I think this was the episode where the tone really clicked and the disparate storylines felt like they were all of a piece, joining comments on suppression and repression to construct a portrait of people striving together to challenge a status quo that leaves too many things unquestioned and unsaid.

- How great is Jessica Hynes? Her terse, matter-of-fact tone in her scene at the beginning of the episode beautifully established the tension that drove the remainder of the hour. In recent weeks, I've also seen her appear as an oversharing hippie on Skins and as an Edwardian-era boys' school matron on Doctor Who, so I'm sort of in awe of her range. (I also watched Paul over the weekend, and it's really interesting to see the more drama-focused track she seems to have taken post-Spaced as opposed to the genre work for which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have gained international attention.)

- I've gone down a slight rabbit hole of British television recently, and it's really highlighted why comparisons between this show and Mad Men are simplistic and unfair. It's not just that the only thing they really have in common is the era, and even then not really. There's the difference in years, but more importantly, there's the different trajectories in global identity that the United Kingdom and the United States take during those years, which necessarily and dramatically inform the goings-on on both shows. But the striking thing you notice after watching more than a few British productions? Quite simply, they've been owning us at period pieces for decades, and have a deep pool of acting talent to back up that continuing engagement with the past.

- Just because it's not really like Mad Men in any way doesn't mean I can't still obsess over the fashion. I love everything about Bel's wardrobe, especially the scarves-as-headbands. And this show really makes me want to try to work some red lipstick into my repertoire.

Doctor Who, 6.10: "The Girl Who Waited"

- A great episode, with one of Karen Gillan's best performances in the series - I was particularly, and somewhat unexpectedly, pleased to see the return of Amy's bitterness towards the Doctor, which has largely dissipated in the episodes since "The Eleventh Hour."

- I again felt like I was waiting for a direct reference to what happened with Melody - you'd think that that's a thought that would come up in thirty-six years of stewing. In interviews I've read with Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, it seems like they've got a handle on what keeps Amy and Rory traveling with the Doctor after that kind of traumatic experience, but I'm not sure that that's coming through on screen. There's an argument to be made that it would make sense for them to decide that being on the TARDIS is better than staying in Leadworth alone with their thoughts, but I think they need to specifically say so out loud, instead of leaving it to conjecture. I'm not sure how long the issue can go under-addressed without the arc (or lack thereof) starts undermining the quality of individual episodes.

Revenge, "Pilot"

I was really intrigued by the specific promotion offered for an early viewing of this pilot - ABC offered the pilot script as a free Kindle download on Amazon, which concluded with a link to watch the episode online. The changes from the script to the screen made for an unexpectedly interesting glimpse into the creative process of setting up a show's world to start off a drama series, particularly one like this where a good chunk of the story is dependent on past events. I love a good primetime soap, so I hope this one sticks around long enough to dig into its central mysteries. The pilot shows a lot of potential without seeming too high-concept to be sustainable past thirteen episodes.

The New Girl, "Pilot"

- Took advantage of this one showing up free on iTunes. I liked it, though I felt like I'd already seen about 90% of the pilot in the ads that have been running all summer for the show. I also feel like this pilot is difficult to use as an indicator of how the show will be going forward, since they had to replace Damon Wayans, Jr. and the pilot is so focused on the four roommates. Still, I like Zooey Deschanel (and Max Greenfield - Deputy Leo!), and as a nerdy, crafty twenty-something, I'm excited to see how they develop her character in further episodes.

- I found this profile of Zooey Deschanel from New York Magazine really interesting, especially in its take on both positive and negative reception of her star persona.

Miscellaneous Links:

- I love a good Mad Men dissection, so this Daily Beast post with Matthew Weiner and Jon Hamm breaking down "The Suitcase" was right up my alley.

- An interesting AOLTV piece (shared by Katie) by Mo Ryan about declining numbers of women writers on television staffs.

- More Downton Abbey! (The pieces coming out about the show right now must drive PBS's marketing people crazy.) This time, a New York Times article profiling Julian Fellowes. I love that he defends Thomas to the interviewer.

And Yet More on The Help

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

Discussing The Help in my August movies post, one of the things I said is that I felt like I wanted more historical specificity in the framing of the story. Which is all well and good, but even better if you've got an example on hand to compare it to. So here's one that kept coming to mind - Freedom Riders, a documentary which aired earlier this year as part of PBS's American Experience series, and was recognized yesterday at the Creative Arts Emmys for "Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking." One of the things I really like about this documentary is how well it uses its scope - it zeroes in on the Freedom Rides in a way that feels more incisive than, say, something like Eyes on the Prize, and gives a real sense of the range of people involved. I also appreciate the complexity of its depiction of the Kennedy administration and the way they balanced their interactions with the activists involved in the Rides with their desire to keep their Southern base with the Democratic party. More of the directed, purposeful actions of the era deserve this kind of rescue from the over-broad umbrella of "the Civil Rights movement."

Also, an interesting Entertainment Weekly piece from Mark Harris regarding The Help, and specifically Viola Davis' performance, which touches on a question I've been thinking about for a while - that of evaluating an individual actor's ability to transcend or bring depth to a stereotypical role.

Screened: August 2011

August 6: The Deer Hunter

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

A long-standing entry on the "Movies I Feel Obligated to See" list, crossed off!

August 9: Captain America: The First Avenger

Screened: In the theater

Probably the best I've seen of the leading-up-to-The Avengers movies. Captain America embraced its period setting with vigor, and established its cast of characters so well that the movie's flash-forward ending felt like a bit of a tragedy. It's not only a good movie on its own, it established its ties to the broader Avengers narrative in a much less clunky fashion than the Iron Man movies. By the end, I actually felt like I was really looking forward to next summer.

August 17: Jumping the Broom

Screened: At home, DVD from Netflix

A nice little wedding melodrama ideal for an afternoon viewing chilling on the sofa. It feels a little facile to compare any black-cast drama with those of Tyler Perry's oeuvre, but to that end I appreciated that this movie had plot-driving conflict without outlandishly demonizing any of its characters. Also, I love the opening credits.

August 19: The Help

Screened: In the theater

I've been thinking a lot about this movie, and trying to capture my thoughts about it without my commentary becoming a treatise. It's not a bad movie - in the most basic sense, it is a very good, faithful adaptation of its source material - but it is a deeply flawed movie. Ultimately, what I come down to is that what bothers me about The Help is similar to what bothered me about X-Men: First Class (and how interesting that they take place within a year of each other) - the movie claims a specific point in history in its setting, but presents an overall picture that is troublingly ahistorical. Outside of the scene of Skeeter perusing issues of Life following the murder of Medgar Evers, there is little, if any, sense of the broader civil rights movement. No mention of the fact that the action of the story takes place nearly a decade after Brown v. Board of Education. No indicator of how Skeeter, recent graduate of Ole Miss, reacted to James Meredith's integration. And no sense, upon the story's completion, that in the next year activists will focus their attentions specifically on Mississippi and push for the state's black residents to receive the rights due to them as American citizens. The movie doesn't argue that Skeeter isn't naive. But it's unwilling to ask whether she has been willfully ignorant in the years leading up to the opening moments of the story, or what kinds of prejudices she may have left to challenge even as she disagrees with the actions of her former friends.

There's also a distinct, irksome lack of historical specificity. The churchgoing scenes were well-anchored by David Oleyowo (and I do hope that Lee Daniels' Selma can find financing before it fades into the ether, because - among other reasons - this movie made me really curious to see how Oyelowo's take on Martin Luther King would play out), but reinforced the ongoing issue in depictions of the civil rights movement of the lack of recognition for the increasing radicalization (and distance from church-based groups like the SCLC) of younger activists by this time. Besides Nelsan Ellis' quiet soda jerk, there really aren't any younger black characters around to even begin to offer different points of view of the way the world should be. There's also the fact that while Evers' murder serves as a narrative turning point, he is never specifically identified as working for the NAACP and his death plays as more random than targeted. I was also surprised that even with the film's focus on 1963, they declined to mention the Birmingham church bombing. There is merit in Kathryn Stockett's decision to focus on the domestic sphere and the interplay between intimacy and distance enacted there by black and white women. But the story is then done a disservice by allowing the world outside these individual homes to fade into a hazy background where nothing much important is going on.

I imagine over the coming months and years this movie will keep popping up, especially as I continue refining my academic interests in race and representation in popular culture. It's been invigorating to see those issues discussed in national, mainstream publications as The Help gained popularity. I just hope the discussion continues once the movie leaves theaters, and that filmmakers see its legacy as a challenge and call to offer more complex takes on a rich, complicated time in U.S. history.