Smart television

Many, many years ago, before Torrents and complete DVD sets, we would patiently wait for seven nights before the next episode of our fave TV show was on.  What would happen to the Ingalls at the prairie next ?   Would the bad, bad Olsons get the best of them?  Who would be Kermit’s celebrity guest?  How many Germans would die in the next Combat?  It was fun to wait for a week.  We would imagine, wonder about the “susunod na kabanata”.  We’d only spend a few hours in front of the TV, then spend the rest of day on other things that didn’t depend on electricity. 

Fast-forward to the 2000s.  We download and watch everything in one sitting.  We’ve gotten busier but still manage to spend more hours on the computer watching TV episodes back-to-back-to-back.   Lately, I’ve been stricken with the all-at-once-virus.  I can’t get enough of The Good Wife.

I’ve seen eight episodes of its first season in two nights.   I’m a late convert because I thought it was a melodrama about a scorned woman who’s trying to just keep in together.  Friends at the office had been raving about it; so I got a copy of the first season.  Now, I’m hooked, I’m hating this addiction.  I hate how Julianna Margulies is so good at playing a woman who’s forced to go back to lawyering to make a living while her politician-husband is in prison.  I hate how Archie Panjabi – Kalinda the investigator – keeps me guessing about her real motivations.  I hate how comedienne Christine Baranksi can do drama well.  I hate how a legal drama can be so topical, nuanced, not hysterical, not full of complicated twists and turns.  

It’s the best drama on TV right now.  A milestone in the evolution of intelligent television.  It’s made me forget the house on the prairie and delayed gratification.  

When Electronica is superior to the movie.

"I just missed your heart", says Hanna to the deer.  Joe Wright the director missed mine, too.

The first 15 minutes of Hanna are very promising.   The concept, while familiar, is clever. A 16-year-old girl is raised by his father in the Arctic to be an assassin.  Thanks to homeschooling, she can speak English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Arabic.  A walking, running, tumbling, weightlifting and rifle-carrying Encyclopedia, too.  The only other book she keeps is The Grimms' Fairytales.  One day, she allows herself to be found by the CIA people.  She's ready for the world and ready to avenge her mother's death. 


The film appears like a mish-mash of Bourne Identity, Leon: The Professional, Kill Bill, Run, Lola, Run, La Femme Nikita, even Sixteen Candles.  But hey, nothing in the world of movies is original anymore.  Besides, Saoirse Ronan's (Lovely Bones and Atonement) cold, asexual stare just draws you in.

Then the movie gets too showy and stylish, lacking the subtlety and restraint of the Bourne series.  But the movie score is superb!   The soundtrack by the electronic group Chemical Brothers is a must-buy.   The last time I was blown away by a soundtrack was more than 30 years ago, when Midnight Express came out.  Giorgio Moroder's synthesizer gave birth to electronica.

Here's a fave music video of the Chemical Brothers, done in 2002 by Michel Gondry who's now an accomplished film director himself (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).  Here, Gondry gives justice to their music.