Top 5 Television Seasons of 2009

The last of my top fives for a while, this concerns what I consider the television highlights for 2009. Unlike film, it's impossible to come close to watching everything that comes on, so this list is by no means definitive. My only rule for doing this was that the show must have been broadcast somewhere on British television this year. As such, I've had to include one honourable mention below for a show broadcast in America this year, but which has still not been picked up beyond its first season by any network in the UK.

I think it's also worth mentioning my biggest disappointment for the year: and that's the final season of Battlestar Galactica. At the start of last year this would have been top of a hypothetical Most Anticipated Shows of 2009 list. And, while I enjoyed it fine at the time, over the year I've come to appreciate just how big a disappointment the finale was.  It failed to adequately answer a lot of questions, and threw away important themes that had been set-up through out its previous seasons. However, my disappointment for the finale and season can be adequately summed up with one word: Starbuck.

Anyway, enough with the negatives, let's talk about the positives:

Honourable Mention:
Friday Night Lights: Season 3 (DVD: Region 1 only)
Not only has this not been broadcast in the UK, only season 1 of it is available on Region 2 DVD. Such is my love of the show, I've imported the last two seasons from America in order to watch it. It's such a pity so few people watch this show. I actually think this will be a show people discover over time, and hope it gets the audience it deserves as word gets around about it over time. (Much like that HBO show based in Baltimore).  Season 3 was the end of an era, as most of the characters we've come to love were graduating high school.  This season was, in my opinion, the best so far, as the audience and writers know all the characters so well the storylines really hit home.  Tyra's arc this season (and in the series as a whole) was a real highlight for me: summed up by my tears of joy/sadness/emotion when she writes her application letter for college.  The season ended on an unexpected cliff-hanger, which I'm certain will give the show a great lease of life when it returns.

5. Torchwood: Children of the Earth (BBC 1)
Torchwood finally reached its potential with this 5 episode mini-series. Season 1 started poorly, but picked up a little towards the end. Season 2 understood better that making an 'adult' version of Doctor Who doesn't mean having to have lots of swearing and sex. This story gave it the room to come up with the kind of haunting, bleak story Doctor Who could never attempt. A brilliantly paced story with a great mix of action, horror and drama. I hope they can continue that kind of form when it returns for a full season, presumably at the end of this year.

4. Mad Men Season 2 (BBC 4)
An incredibly well-written show which can so much with so little. It's hard to describe why a show about an advertising agency in the 60s is so watchable. Perhaps it's because the characters constantly surprise you without acting "out of character". An episode can give you just one scene with a character that totally changes the view you've had of them for the past two seasons. (One scene from The Golden Violin comes to mind). If you're a fan of shows like The West Wing and The Wire you should definitely check it out.

3. Lost - Season 5 (Sky One)
(Spoilers for the end of Season 4)
The show that never stops getting stranger. This season our lostees were not only lost on an island but lost in time. It's crazy that they never introduced us to the time-travelling elements of this show, but thankfully the writers have taught us to expect the unexpected and I feel as though these elements really paid off. The Variable, my personal fave, summed up how well the writers could use this new dimension to create great moments of drama. As normal, the season ended on a cliff-hanger. Only this one is so big, I literally have no idea what season 6 will be about. It starts again in about four weeks and I can't wait.

2. Dollhouse - Seasons 1 & 2 (Sci-Fi UK)
(Spoilers for season 1 ahead)
It's strange to think that a year ago, I hadn't even seen one episode of this show. Like Torchwood (and Buffy and Firefly) it got off to a shaky start. The procedural nature of the early episodes not suiting the stories its creator, Joss Whedon, has become known for. Since about half-way through the first season, however, its become an incredible show. Not least because of the ground-breaking Epitaph One: which showed us a startling version of the not-so-distant-future our protagonists helped create. That episode has really propelled the second season of the show, where we see the characters make the seemingly innocuous choices that will lead to the end of civilisation as they know it. A show which really rewards second viewing since the writers sow a lot of seeds early on that they pay off later. Like Firefly, I think this will be a show only appreciated after it has stopped airing at the end of this month.

1. The Thick of It - Season 3 (BBC 2)
I had heard the The Thick of It was really worth watching, but just never got round to watching it. So when the film In the Loop, which is based on the series came out, I thought I'd better check it out. I wasn't disappointed. Its blend of political satire, awkwardness and strangely poetic swearing won my over. So much so, that the film is definitely my favourite comedy of 2009. The third season started in October, and I wish I'd watched from the start. In the age of MPs expenses, its dark take on the inner workings of politics feels all the more pertinent. The episode where they appear on Five Live was a personal favourite: with joy turning to anguish and back to joy for the two parties and their MPs at every turn.  When Tucker and his Conservative rival clash at the end, the blend of machoism and insecurity was one of the best written pieces of drama I've seen.  That scene superbly sums up why the show works: despite big personas, the characters are written as real people, meaning the dramatic moments hit home just as well as the comedic ones.

Oh and if you're interested my top five most anticipated shows of 2009 would be:
5. Breaking Bad (Seasons 1&2 - I've yet to see either)
4. Glee 
3. Doctor Who 
2. The Pacific
1. Lost

Top 5 Most Anticipated Movies of 2010

Another day, another top five. This time it's about movies not yet released. This list, unlike the others, is very much my inner fanboy coming out to play. I have no idea what the quality of these movies will be, but I do know the excitement I feel when thinking about their release.

5. Inception
This film is directed by Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight, Prestige, Memento) so it makes the list for that reason alone. The plot isn't that clear as yet, but its tagline: "Your Mind is the Scene of the Crime" implies this will be a psychological thriller where it's not always clear what reality is. It also makes me think Nolan will also exploring the true intent of his characters' actions: the strongest theme in his work to date.
I'll let you try and make sense of the trailer:



4. Kick Ass
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, who worked with Guy Ritchie on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels then Snatch before going on to direct Layer Cake and the excellent Stardust by himself. Kick-Ass concerns a group of have-a-go-superheroes without any actual superpowers. Among them is the incredibly violent Hit-Girl: played by twelve-year old Chloe Moretz. I think you get a good sense of the mix of violence and humour from the pre-watershed trailer:



As well as the 18-rated post-watershed trailer which introduces you to Hit-Girl, and as such contains very strong language, so NSFW:

3. Up in The Air
I spoke last week about my love for the trailer of this movie. Having listened to the film's director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno) talk about this project, as well as film critics in America, I can't wait to see it. George Clooney plays a character who's job it is to fire people. He spends most of his life in hotel rooms and airports doing his best to make connections, so long as they aren't human. Zing! - One day I will write trailer monologues:

In a world of connections, Ryan is doing his make to make some - cut to him making a flight - and avoid others - cut to him making excuse after leaving a woman in a hotel room.

Thankfully they didn't hire me to do the trailer, and made this wonderful one instead:



2. Toy Story 3
I've heard Toy Story 1 & 2 described as "The Godfather" of animated movies: an amazing first feature followed by an even better sequel. Here's hoping the third one doesn't turn out to be like the ill-judged Godfather Part 3 then. The film opens with Andy going off to college, so the toys are taken to a day-care centre. Once there, the unbridled chaos of dozens of little toddlers leads them to plot their escape. Pixar's last three movies have all been in my top five of their respective years. They've succeeded, because unlike the Shreks of the animated world, they realise that making adult-friendly films goes beyond making smutty jokes that go over kids heads (Do you think he's maybe compensating for something?). It's about story. Here's the trailer:

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Scott Pilgrim is based on a comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley and directed by Edgar Wright (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). It tells the story of 23-year-old Scott Pilgrim who's in the post-uni, pre-work stage of life. His life changes when he meets Ramona Flowers, literally the girl of his dreams. Mixing action, music and pop-culture references, this is one of my favourite comics ever. I'm super-excited about seeing the film, which stars Michael Cera as the lead, and also includes a grown-up Kieran Culkin as his totally platonic gay-bedmate.
There's no trailer for the movie yet, so you'll have to make do with Edgar Wright's description of the film, interspersed with sword-fighting from the cast:

Change of Blog Title

I started writing this blog a week or so with the intention of doing my top fives of the decade and year and then stopping. In previous years, I had posted these on facebook, but since I knew the posts I wanted to do would take at least two hours to write, thought I'd open it up to a slightly wider audience.

The feedback from speaking to friends has been positive enough that I'll hopefully continue to update this blog on a semi-regular basis (by which I mean a few times every month). My intention is to post about anything interesting I've seen recently on the big or small screen. Whether that be trailers, movies, episodes/seasons of TV, or cats playing pianos with their tails.

As such this blog will hence forth be known as:
"You can observe a lot by just watching"

If you're interested the quote is from Yogi Berra a baseball player/coach who was known for coming up with some of the most well-known sporting cliches/paradoxes. "It ain't over til it's over" being the most well-known.

The URL for the site will remain the same:
http://thosewhoaredumber.blogspot.com

Bonus points for the first person to tell me where I got the phrase "those who are dumber" from.

Paul Thomas Anderson: My Favourite Director?

When it comes to naming famous directors, I don't think many in the general public would go for p t anderson.  Spielberg, Cameron, Eastwood, Scorsese, or Ridley Scott are all names that resonate with the public. In fact if I were to mention the name Anderson, people would probably think I was referring to the director of Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Life Aquatic. Or even worse the director of Resident Evil and Alien vs. Predator.

I guess if you're reading this article, there's every chance you're in the same camp as the great unwashed. None of his films have made hundreds of millions at the box office. In fact, his namesake, Paul W.S. Anderson, has made more money with his last three by-the-numbers movies, than p t anderson has with his five great ones.

Nevertheless, two of his films, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, I would certainly put in my top ten movies of all time. The emotions I get from watching those two features are unlike anything any other films give me: the worlds Anderson creates are so unique and enchanting that I can't help but be sucked in. For me there's two big reasons that his movies are so watchable:

1. His ability to create a fable-like world without traditional fantasy elements
If you take directors like Tim Burton or Guillermo del Toro: the fairy-tale like worlds they create are obvious from the first frame. Their use of colour, creature/character-design and set-design leave you in no doubt that this is a world unlike our own. Anderson's movies also exist in a world unlike our own: they contain coincedences, and inexplicable events that subtly reveal to the viewer this is not trying to show us reality in its truest form. Examples of this include the "Wise Up" musical scene in Magnolia; The appearance of the harmonium in Punch Drunk Love; and although There Will Be Blood has less-obvious signs: the inclusion of a Eli's twin, Paul at the start of the movie, and the way neither of the main characters age at all in the final chapter also point towards this tale being outside of our own reality.

2. His use of music
Despite rarely using the same composer, the soundtrack to each of his films has its own feeling. There's a sense of enchantment yet underlying sadness about them. In creating his 'fables', the music plays a very important part in bringing the viewer into these strange yet emotionally-charaged worlds.

I'm now going to go through each of his movies and explain what makes them so special. The excpetion will be There Will Be Blood which I feel I've convered extensively in this blog: coming top of my movies of 2008 and movies of the decade.


Hard Eight (a.k.a. Sydney)
Based on a chapter from Cigarettes and Alcohol, this tells this story of Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) meeting John (John C. Reilly) and mentoring him in how to make money from casinos. Like Punch Drunk Love, this is a much smaller, more intimate movie. It features a lot of Anderson's trademarks: long scenes of dialogue, and a 'moment': A moment that forces the movie to shift gears abruptly and move in a completely new direction. It also features Reilly, Hoffman, Hall and Melora Waters, who would each have roles in Anderson's next two movies. A small, well-told story of trust and redemption.

Boogie Nights
Boogie Nights tells the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a porn star in the 1970s. From a film-making standpoint this is a very good movie. The introductory shot does an incredible job of not only introducing the mood and feel of the time the movie is set in, but also in showing you the main characters and where they're at as the story begins. Something, narratively, many movies can take about twenty minutes to achieve. The fact it's all in one take gives it an energy and vitality that make it one of my favourite openings to any movie.
If you skip to 1 minute in the clip below, you can watch the scene in question. The opening shot ends at about 4 minutes, with the first shot of Dirk (Mark Wahlberg)



Despite wonderful moments like this, for me the subject-matter had a big impact on my enjoyment of the movie. Films must keep the viewer engaged in the world, and I felt there were times I couldn't engross myself with the characters and story because of the nature of its content. For this reason alone it's my least favourite of Anderson's movies.

Magnolia
Magnolia tells about ten stories, which all interweave. Common themes of disappointment, family and forgiveness all feature strongly in a movie that I can watch again and again without being bored. Viewing it feels like entering a dream: sometimes I'll put it on just to watch half an hour and find I've reached the point where it 'all goes biblical' two and a half hours in. There are so many moments I love, and so many of the stories I cherish. Tom Cruise's tale is certainly one of them. For my money, this is his finest performance. His arc is one of the most remarkable I've ever seen, as I go from viewing him as the most despicable being on the planet to someone a few sandwiches short of a picnic to someone you will be crying with by the end of the movie.
It's remarkable that all the characters bring you on a similar sort of journey: where you feel such a range of emotions towards them: loathing, pity, frustration, warmth. Sometimes all in one scene. A remarkable movie which everyone with even a passing interest in cinema must watch.

Among my favourite scenes is the one below, where all the characters sing Aimee Mann's "Wise Up". In the wrong hands or in a different movie, this type of thing could be the cheesiest, most cringe-enducing thing ever. However, when I watch the film, this is the scene that always brings a tear to my eye:



Punch Drunk Love
The movie that proves, against all previous evidence, Adam Sandler can act. He plays a lonely office worker, Barry, who is employed by a company that sells novelty items. He meets Lena, and the film shows us the beginnings of their relationship, as Barry copes with a complicated web of family, sex-lines and airmiles.
Like (500) Days of Summer, and Garden State this is a romantic comedy that can be enjoyed equally by guys and girls. Sandler's frustrated office worker is a brilliantly strange mix of ingenious and idiocy. I've only seen this once, and I found the tale told is charmingly simple yet weirdly unpredictable. On first viewing, I felt it suffered from pacing issues, although feel this would probably be a non-issue on repeat viewings. A nice, endearing film that proves romantic comedies can be done in really creative and insightful way.

So there you have it, my summation of my love for p t anderson. If you're a fan of him, you probably disagree with some of the interpretations I've put above. If you've never seen a movie by this inspirational director, I hope this has persuaded you to rent one of his movies out in the near future. Were that to be the case for just one reader, I would consider this blog entry a complete success.

Favourite Trailer of the Year: Up In The Air

Yesterday I promised to do a write-up on Paul Thomas Anderson.  However, since I've got a flight to catch today I'll be unable to do the blog entry justice in the time available.
Instead, in keeping with my theme of "Top Fives of the Year" I'm giving you my number one trailer from last year: "Up In The Air"



There's a number of reasons this trailer works. However, the reason it's my favourite is thatit works as a piece of entertainment in its own right. The monologue doesn't actually need a movie to exist: it works on its own terms. I've heard a lot of good things about the movie, but regardless of its quality this trailer should be appreciated as a two-minute piece of art.