Jason Toney

Bailey & Grey & Yang & ...

"People across the country think the man is insane." - A Race of Angels, Michael & The Force

A funny thing happened on the way to the coliseum: Grey's Anatomy became my favorite show on TV again. Perhaps it's the departure of Katherine Heigl or my general love for shows with ethnically diverse well rounded casts (hi Community and Fringe) but I think it's the return to focusing on strong women in emotionally honest ways.

Last night's episode featured some wonderful scene work from Ellen Pompeo and Sandra Oh. Their scenes together tend to be the strongest on the show often but, for me, I am always most pulled in when they are being friends to each other. Real friends. These are damaged people. They know they are damaged. They are also highly motivated and cocky and funny and bull headed and different from each other. They are rarely on the same emotional plane. Meredith Grey has moved past being "dark & twisty" to being, perhaps, the most emotionally stable person in the primary cast. Meanwhile, Cristina Yang has been through some shit lately. That's the only way to explain it. She's been rubbed raw.

So, last night, as she went through a PTSD episode on the floor of an OR and her best friend—her person—comes in and lays on the floor next to her and gets her through by reminding her she does still feel, that she is still alive, if only because she can see and touch her. That she can look in her eyes and hold her hand, well, I was moved. When they follow it up with another honest conversation, with more friendship, well, damn, that's powerful tv.

I especially enjoyed Ellen Pompeo's delivery of this line: "I'd already fixed her just before you came in. Nice speech, though." It speaks to who she is as a character.

And then there's Chandra Wilson's Miranda Bailey. With George gone from the show (and missed), she's clearly the moral and emotional center of Seattle Grace and while she's getting a lot of great small moments to work with so far this season, I keep thinking about last season's finale. I still have the episode on my DVR even though I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again. What I remember, though, the images I see clearly from that episode are of her face. Her terror. Her sadness. Her fight.

GA does a better job of connecting with me emotionally than any other show on TV. For all the ridiculous medicine and over-the-top relationship drama, I always believe what these characters feel.

And so it sits at #1 on the record queue ahead of Fringe and Boardwalk Empire and Criminal Minds and Community.

In a season of really bad new TV shows, I'm happy to have this old favorite back and in fine form.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

"How come you can sleep at night?" - Arcade Fire, Modern Man

No deep thoughts this morning. Actually, there are  a lot of them, just none that I can share today, so, instead a question: what cartoons are you watching?

Considering where I work, it's probably not surprising that I'm a sucker for animation but I have a special affinity for the television cartoon. As a kid, I planned my life around afternoon cartoon blocks and Saturday mornings and USA's Cartoon Express. As the genre has changed—most cartoons have left broadcast networks for cable; the direct to video market has matured greatly—I still find myself making plans to watch 'toons.

Just this past week, I took in the World Premiere of Batman/Superman:Apocalypse (Supergirl) at the Paley Center For Media. I also might argue that the best of the young new tv season has been animated.

So, since I asked you, here's what's on that I'm loving:

Batman: The Brave and The Bold - Featuring a wide variety of characters from all eras (including one of my very favorite things about DC's animated Universe, the increased prominence of heroes of color) but with all stories told in a decidedly Silver Age style, this version of Batman is super-fun. He's the master detective and escape artist with very little of the brooding and torment that defines the contemporary Dark Knight. This bat has friends and cares about his relationships. Every week, I'm pleasantly surprised.

 Kick Buttowski - Not to be a company shill but Kick is awesome. The show is often stolen by his best friend Gunther and is told with impeccable comedic timing and charm. Kick just wants to be great and never let's his many failures get him down. Not surprising, given that he was created by our former Creative Director who has two phrases that I steal and use often, "Take Risks. Don't be afraid to fail." Kick falls down. He gets up again.

 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - I picked up this series in it's second season and haven't yet gone back to watch season one but I can safely say that there isn't another animated television series out today that consistently wows me with the animation itself. I still remember what this kind of CG animation looked like with series like ReBoot and The Clone Wars is just spectacular to look at. The storytelling is also very strong—much stronger than the second trilogy of Star Wars films that acts as it's source material and inspiration. Anakin and Obi-Wan are deeper characters with well understood motivations here and the expanded world of Star Wars is much more clear. The Jedis, the bounty hunters, and, especially, the clones that will make up the ranks of Storm Troopers in the coming empire are all much more nuanced and relatable in this "kids cartoon" than they ever were in episodes I through III.

 The Venture Bros. - The last of the great Adult Swim series. The show returned last week bringing the Phantom Limb back along with them as well as my most favorite thing about the show: the satirical roasting of comic book stories and characters. I'm hoping this season is much stronger than the uneven-ness of the last one and that Dr. Venture and the boys don't suffer the same fate as many of the Adult Swim shows: an uninspired, slow, painful decline in it's final seasons. I'm looking at you, The Boondocks.

Also on the radar is a new series from Disney Channel, Fish Hooks, which looks really promising.

The Two Zeros: The Best Television of The Decade - Six Feet Under

"Just like the prodigal son, I've returned." - House of Pain, Jump Around (Pete Rock Remix)

I've seen a few best of TV lists for the decade and they name all the right shows—The Wire, Chappelle's Show,  Battlestar Galactica, The Daily Show, LOST, Buffy, Arrested Development, The Sopranos, etc.—but I haven't seen much talk of Six Feet Under, which, in my mind, is on par with The Wire as the best written, most impactful show ever.

I'm not going to dig into the nuances of the show other than to say that much like most of the TV I liked this decade, Six Feet Under had a multicultural cast full of well developed, well drawn characters whose purpose wasn't to highlight race or focus on racial issues but to reflect the reality of the worlds in which they existed. A funeral home in Pasadena, California run by a family that is fully engaged in Southern California isn't going to have to go in search of diversity. It lives where they live and those people of all hues and backgrounds would go to them to bury their loved ones. That's one of the trends I hope continues into the next decade: television shows where we all exist together and not just crashing into each other but collaborating, laughing, and loving. That's the world I live in.

Why I really love the show, though, is this: I have always been terribly afraid of my own mortality and the potential deaths of those around me. Halfway through this decade, a friend committed suicide and I didn't understand it. Couldn't wrap my head around it. That lack of clarity threatened to consume me but a scene from a television show gave me perspective. I've faced the death of loved ones since then and I always go back to the sentiment of the ghost of a dead father talking to his son about death and life.

The very dead Nate, Sr: You're missing the point. 

David: There is no point. That's the point. Isn't it? 

Nate, Sr: Don't give me this phony existential bullshit. I expect better from you. The point's right in front of your face. 

David: Well, I'm sorry but I don't see it. 

Nate, Sr: You're not even grateful are you? 

David: Grateful? For the worst fucking experience of my life? 

Nate, Sr: You hang on to your pain like it means something, like it's worth something. Well, let me tell you: it's not worth shit. Let it go. (Nate, Sr. looks toward the sky) Infinite possibilities and all he can do is whine. 

David: And what am I supposed to do? 

Nate, Sr: What do you think? You can do anything, you lucky bastard, you're alive! What's a little pain compared to that? 

David: It can't be so simple. 

Nate, Sr: What if it is?

Infinite possibilities simply because I'm alive and not six feet under. I dare you to find television that tells you something better than that.

The Wire: Glitches in the System (404)

"Sometimes I'm goodie-goodie/Right now I'm naughty-naughty" - The Gossip, Are U That Somebody? (Aaliyah Cover)

Episode 41: Refugees
Written by Dennis Lehane
Directed by Jim McKay

"A good church man is always up in everybody's shit" - Deacon Melvin

"No one fucks with me now." - Marlo

"Are you in any way suggesting that the system has lost control?" - Board of Education rep.

Official: "No one wins. One side just loses more slowly." - Prez

Previously on: Marlo wants Bodie's corner. Bunny wants a meaningful job. Royce wants a case to go away. Omar wants some excitement in his life. Marimow wants Major Crimes to suck. Herc wants a promotion. Kima & Lester want the hell out of Major Crimes. Prez wants to forget his first week of school.

The cold open is all about Marlo and his power trip but we'll get to that later. I hadn't seen it last week but during the previously on and throughout this episode it became obvious, Rawls is trying to screw Burrell and the Mayor. While Burrell is too busy trying to dodge the shit storm coming down from Royce's office, Rawls has been moving his chess pieces so that his state's witness murder case doesn't get buried. He's moved Lester & Kima to Homicide and put Colonel Foerster into a position where he's forced to give Kima the case in a order that comes down straight from Burrell. Kima is green but she's great Po-Lice -- another McNulty -- and Rawls knows she's going to do something with a case that she has no business being on.

Hell, that's just what those Major Crimes detectives do, innit? In other Homicide news, Bunk & Lester are partnering on the Fruit murder and figure out that Lex is dead. Bunk gets busy drinking while Cool Lester Smooth wraps his head around the problem of known dead people but no dead bodies.

Meanwhile, it continues to be readily apparent that the kids are doing it for themselves. Sherrod continues to ditch school because he can't read and we learn that Shaquan needed over 200 stitches in her face while Laetitia will move from her group home to juvie which is only a minor downgrade in her life for the crime. Namond's still an ass, Donut's still stealing cars and Dukie continues to be the odd man out while Randy gets caught doing his candy hustle and has to dime out another kid. He also seems most affected by the classroom violence of the previous week.

Michael, however, is on everyone's radar. While his home life leaves much to be desired, he spends his time taking care of his little brother and avoiding the fatherly influence of Cutty, although he is softening. He spars with Cutty and joins him and Justin on a trip to the Fights but won't let Cutty get too close even refusing a ride all the way home. All this happens while Cutty sees a significant problem in the system as he takes Deacon's advice and gets a makeshift custodial job at Tilghman that is mostly about rounding up kids and getting them to go to school...for at least one day. Cutty can't seem to wrap his head around how screwed up things have gotten.

And Michael is still in the sights of Marlo who sees the kid as a possible corner boy. It's a power play. He sees Michael as a comer and could care less about the kid's future. Marlo only cares about his own juice. He spends all episode exerting his influence and power if only to prove to himself that it's still there. After a poker game, he taunts a Security Guard at a quick-mart and has him clipped for disrespect. He forces his package on Bodie. He refuses Prop Joe's reasonable offer to join the Co-Op because "No one's fucking with [him] now." Well, Prop Joe puts Marlo in Omar's path so now, he's officially been fucked with and Marlo, once again, overestimates his power while underestimating Omar's. That's not a good situation for him.

Other notes:

• Carcetti continues to impress the people of Baltimore which probably will end up with a Tony Gray win of the election (This is a baseless prediction. You folks that have seen the entire season already, please don't say shit in the comments about future episodes confirming or denying this. Thanks)
• Grace's last name is Sampson.
• Herc joins Major Crimes for no apparent reason.
• Bunny finds signs of hope in other parts of Tilghman that Prez obviously isn't privy.
• Ms. Daniels loses her place on Royce's ticket while Royce hustles his own card game to raise 75 grand of "off the books" dollars.
• Sydnor & Massey have to shut down the wire.
• Parallels: The poker games. Bunk telling Kima she needs soft eyes for a crime scene a la Prez getting told he needs soft eyes to be a good teacher.
• This is a complete set-up episode for things to come but I thought it was the weakest of the season even with knowing that. Nothing quite caught my attention as strongly as the previous weeks have.

Next week: Who knows? Herc gets surveillance up on Marlo; Marlo tries to set-up Omar and Kima's case makes waves.

The Wire: S-N-Double O-P! (401)

"Only thing tighter than my rhymes is the puss" - Busta Rhymes featuring Rah Digga, Untouchable (New Crack City)

Episode 38: Boys of Summer
Story by David Simon & Ed Burns
Directed by Joe Chappelle

"There's an election? Who's runnin'?" - Cool Lester Smooth

"Pandemic! Got that Pandemic!" - Hilltop Touters

"I've been schooled, dog. I'm trying to tell you." - Felicia "Snoop" Pearson

"That lost-ball, high-grass motherfucker, Carcetti, needs to get used to life in the wilderness." - Mayor Clarence Royce

"Fuck yourself with a forty, shit-breath" - Officer Tony Colicchio

"Look at that bow-legged motherfucker. I made him walk like that." - Bunk Moreland

Official: "Lambs to the slaughter here." - Marcia Donnelly

If you want to know what happened in the previously on... check my season 4 primer.

Welcome back, Baltimore! Oh, how I have missed you so. We're about a year after season 3 ended. Marlo is the absolute big fish in the Western drug world. New Major Daniels is running the Western police division. The primary election is 4 weeks away and school is about to start but, really, we start with Snoop shopping for a nail gun at Hardware Barn. The DeWalt 410 (although it looks to actually be a DeWalt DC618k) she's been using has a low battery life and she wants an upgrade. As the hardware salesman tells her, the Hilti DX 460 will do the job. He earns a $100 tip for helping the hit-woman and #3 in command in Marlo's crew get her job done that much easier.

And, it's on. The newly arranged theme song is "gospirational" and performed by Doreen Vail & Maurette Brown-Clark. There are 57 different shots in the new main title and if you're obsessive like me, you can read the entire list after the jump. Every season I want to know what's in the title sequence but I've never really had a reason before to actually go through it. Now, I'll never have to do it again this season.

The story every season is dependent on what the Major Case Squad is doing so let's start there. The team, lead by Lester "Cool Lester Smooth" Freamon and Kima Greggs while their absentee lieutenant focuses on building his dream house, is up on just about all the street level guys in Marlo's crew. As discussed, Marlo is much more tactical than Avon ever was but he isn't as smart or as paranoid about the police as Stringer Bell.

The problem for Major Case, though, is that there are no bodies. There is very little sting (or bargaining power) in arresting and bringing down the drug kingpin if they can't clear some murders. Marlo, Chris (who is an even more gentlemanly killer than Omar and Brother Mouzone) and Snoop have devised an ingenious plan for keeping the police off their back. They store the bodies in abandoned and boarded up buildings, reboarding them with the nail gun after they've don their business.

With all this free time, Lester has the team going through old Barksdale/Bell assets and asks Pearlman for subpeonas so that they can "follow the money" which leads to several prominent politicians during election time.

Speaking of elections, Carcetti is a great councilman but a terrible candidate. He can't even get his advance crew leader, Norman (played by the excellent Reg E. Cathey), to vote for him. He also can't seem to raise any money or get his friend and opponent, Tony, to forgive him. Meanwhile, Royce is losing voter confidence but getting new funds at every turn.

But who cares about politics, when you've got the real mayor of West Baltimore, "Bodie" Broadus running a low-traffic corner after getting pushed off of Lafayette by Marlo's crew? His new independent crew features Lex & young hopper Namond along with Reese and a few others. Slim Charles provides the package but he's an independent distributor now, okay with selling to the small-time clockers and not trying to hold any corners of his own. Bodie regularly gets visits from McNulty and Carver -- who might finally have become good Po-Lice -- but doesn't seem to have any real issues outside of too much product. Well, there is the little problem of his boy Lex not knowing who is untouchable and killing Fruit, one of Marlo's top corner captains, all for love.

Fruit's death provides the first body caught on the wire and gives Bunk something to do. Lex's murder a few days later at the hands of Snoop and Chris will make things all the more interesting for Bunk and Lester and Carver...and Randy. Randy is one of our new faces. He's one of the junior high school age kids running amok in the Western. He rolls with Namond (who has the money and the attitude but none of the heart), Michael (their fearless protector), Donut (the comedian), and Dukie (dirty, dishelved and obviously fending for himself at 13). Randy is the brains. He's a good kid with a kind heart who comes from what appears to be a stable home. He's also partially responsible for Lex's death.

Other stuff:
-Prez is teaching math at a middle school in the western. The principal and assistant principal are ecstatic to have a former police officer as a teacher.
-McNulty is flying right. He's living with "Beadie" and her kids, refusing promotions from Daniels and staying sober.
-Herc is working Mayoral security detail and still doesn't have a very developed sense of humor.
-The Baltimore Sun is right. Snoop is awesome.
-Fruit was already living on borrowed time as "Cutty" would've killed him last season if hadn't lost his heart for the drug game.

Next week: who the hell knows? I couldn't make heads or tails out of the preview outside of our favorite crooked congressman putting the pressure on Royce after getting Lester's subpeona.

Hangin' in a Jorry...Good Times

"Climbing out this hole with a frown on my face in the place to be" - Outkast, Ghettomusick (Speakerboxxx) 

"That show is so ghetto." 

We were discussing reality TV, as people who work in reality TV are want to do. I had mentioned earlier in the week that the only two reality TV shows that I'm watching that I'm not paid to view were American Idol and Making the Band 2. "I'm not ashamed to watch A. I. this year but MTB2 is terrible. That said, I can't look away," I had explained. 

"I watched part of Making the Band," she said later in the week, "and that one girl, Babs. Oh My God! You're right, that show is so ghetto." 

Now, I knew exactly what she meant. Outside of Ness, and Miss Stokes on occasion, these fools run around like they ain't got no sense. In the first episode, the men in the group all leave Babs at the venue while they run off with some groupies. Their manager, Jason, who at the start of the season looks early 20s but by the end of this tour will probably look 50 having to coral these fools, just wants the guys to apologize so that Babs can feel like people care about her but they aren't willing to do it. 

Not willing to apologize for some stupid shit is pretty ghetto. 

In the second episode, the band members split Dylaun's tour money because he refuses to leave New York claiming it's a probation violation (and we won't even talk about how ghetto that is) and what do we see them all doing? Going into clothing stores to buy throwback jerseys and visiting jewelers to get iced out. 

Ghetto ass motherfuckers. 

And finally, in the most recent episode, after Sara Stokes goes on some real diva shit for a minute, these negroids run around a park avenue apartment like it's the local miniature golf park jumping around and breaking shit. As Teck Money said to Ruthie, "We livin' in this beautiful house. It's beautiful! We gotta keep it nice. What if we have company?" But this person, this white person, says to me, "That show is so ghetto" and for the next 30 or so seconds my head is spinning like the carousels of a Vegas slot machine. She doesn't mean anything prejudicial by it, at least not specifically. I can't really disagree. Da Band is mad ghetto. But. But what?