Crime Alley: "True Detective", Female Characters, and the Art of Noir

Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey

If you're in any way a lover of the crime genre or a lover of good television, you can hardly be unaware of the near rhapsodic buzz attached to HBO's latest entry into the "best television series of all time" sweepstakes True Detective.

The series follows two Louisiana detectives, Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) as they pursue a murder case and their own personal demons over a twenty year period. This first season is only eight episodes long, and was created by novelist and television writer Nic Pizzolatto, with every episode directed by Cary Fukunaga. The idea is that the series is an anthology where the format is the star, with each season being its own self-contained story with completely different characters and cases.

Since its debut the series has earned a huge amount of praise from critics and almost instantaneous ratings success and devotion from viewers. But, as with all things that start off beloved in this modern age, if you get too much praise to early, that sparks the inevitable backlash. In the case of True Detective, it's a recent furor over its depiction (or lack thereof) of complex female characters. I had heard it mentioned here and there ever since the show debuted, but a recent article in the New Yorker by Emily Nussbaum really clarified the argument. Willa Paskin at Slate took the opposing view, and it's a similarly good read.

Of course, what every one's wondering is, "When's a white male going to weigh in on this argument about misogyny?" Rest easy everyone. I'll provide this all-important viewpoint on a woman's issue right now.

"Fantastic Four" cast revealed?

It had been rumoured for a long time, but now Variety reports that the main cast has been pretty much set for 20th Century Fox's upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. The article claims that in addition to long rumoured Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, the film will star Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Susan Storm and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm.

 

Slated to open June, 2015, the reboot will be directed by Josh Trank, who previously helmed the found footage superhero film Chronicle, from a script written by Simon Kinberg, who previously penned Sherlock Holmes and X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The casting of the film has been a source of controversy ever since Jordan was first linked to the role of Johnny Storm. Storm is a white character in the comics, and some fans complained that the casting of an African-American actor in the role was too far away from the original concept. I was not one of those people. I myself had no problem with Jordan's casting because he's a fantastic actor with a big career ahead of him and I can easily see him playing the role of Johnny Storm as he appears in the comics and just killing it. Johnny's skin colour seems to me in no way important to the character. He's a young, hot-headed lady-killer with an immature sense of humour. I don't see what part of that screams white or black. And such vehemence against his casting on the basis of his skin colour? I can't see how that isn't racist in some way.

Woody Allen, Certainty, and the Death of Nuance

Woody Allen

I have to begin this post by saying that I'm a Woody Allen fan. I have loved his films for a very long time, and I love them still. There is no way that I can claim not to have a bias in this issue. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few days, you probably have seen the recent flurry of pieces dealing with accusations that Allen molested his daughter Dylan (now named Malone) in 1992. This was sparked just after the Golden Globes, where Mia Farrow and her son Ronan tweeted comments about Allen's alleged crimes after a tribute to him aired during the ceremony. The story exploded once the New York Times published a heart-wrenching essay written by Dylan Farrow about her claims against her father.

And then the Internet exploded into a massive argument, as the Internet is wont to do. At this point, it seems to me that popular culture in general has devolved into a less funny version of Even Stevphen from the Daily Show.   In this case, the opinion split into two categories, those certain Dylan's claims are true, and those certain that Allen is innocent until proven guilty.

I've thought about this issue for a while, with people who know I'm a fan asking me how I feel about this issue, as if my opinion even mattered. I decided to review all the facts I could find on the case, and I found myself reaching an opinion and even more interestingly, reaching an opinion on having an opinion in this age of blogs, tweets and anonymous Internet forums.

Welcome to Crime Alley with the Parker Novels!

Welcome to a new feature here at The Nerd Report called Crime Alley, where I'll be looking at the crime genre in all its varied forms, from books to movies to comics to TV shows to.....ballet, maybe? If you're a fan of crime stories, maybe this feature will give you a new little nugget to dive into. If you've read the odd mystery but aren't a huge devotee, maybe you'll find some new dark streets to wander down.

So, slam back a shot of whiskey, loosen your tie, put your feet up on your desk, and let's walk down Crime Alley.

In 1962, The Hunter was published, written by Richard Stark. A brutal, fast-paced thriller starring a professional thief named Parker who is betrayed by his fellow crooks during a heist and left for dead. We follow Parker as he cuts a bloody swath through the New York underworld to get revenge and the money owed to him.

Comic Reviews - Week of Dec. 4, 2013

Hi, folks!

Over at Nerds Unchained, my latest reviews are up, so head on over and check them out!

While you're there, please take a look at some of the other reviews on the site. If you're a huge comic fan there's some great insights. If you're thinking about getting into comics but don't know where to start, maybe you'll find a few books that tickle you're fancy. We review more than just superheroes over there.

Thanks, and here's my latest reviews:

X-Men Legacy # 21

Iron Man # 19

Secret Avengers #12

My Writing Is All, Like, Legitimate Now...

Hey all,

So, when you write a blog, you're always a little awed whenever anybody tells you they read it. You kind of figure you're going to be writing for yourself all the time. It's kind of insane to hear not only do people read your stuff, but some of them may actually like it.

So, it's with great pleasure, and  a little pride, that I can announce that I'm not a contributing writer for the web site Nerds Unchained. It's a new site that focuses on the world of comics, and I'll be writing reviews and possibly a few features for them. I'm really excited, they've got some great writers there, so please read their stuff too. You can't go wrong reading about great (and not-so-great) comics written by passionate people.

Here's the links to my first three reviews:

The Flash #25

All Star Western # 25

The Walking Dead #117

50 Years of Who - There's One Thing You Should Never Put in A Trap

Our celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who concludes with a classic clip from the Eleventh Doctor's era.

When Matt Smith was cast as David Tennant's successor there was some initial uproar from fans. Only 26, and a relative unknown, many took this as a sign that the series under new show runner Steven Moffat would take the show in teeny-bopper direction. Moffat shot back that Smith's take on the Doctor would silence all critics, describing the Eleventh Doctor as "bonkers" and praising Smith's ability to play an old man in young man's body.

When Smith's Doctor debuted, Moffat was proven entirely right. Smith immediately nailed the Doctor, creating a performance summed up by his assertion that he truly was "a madman with a box." Smith took his physicality for the Doctor from his favourite predecessor, Patrick Troughton, and used his own gift for physical comedy to give the Doctor a wild energy. His youth was never a factor for an instant, and the Eleventh Doctor's seeming flakiness cover up his wealth of experience.

Moffat also took the series away from the bombast and emotional spectacle of the Russell T Davies era, choosing instead to actually centre his arcs around time travel and multi-layered plotting. While at times it made some stories seem too complex for their own good, it also made time travel and its logistics the focus of the series in ways it had never been before. But, this was still Doctor Who, and it was still full of monsters, thrills and adventure. In the clip below, the Doctor faces off against the Weeping Angels, the most enduring monsters of the new series, and explains to them why going up against him is never healthy:

Tomorrow, November 23, 2013, my favourite TV show of all time turns 50 years old. It'll celebrate this momentous day with a live simulcast of a special episode, broadcast all over the world. That's something usually reserved for Superbowls and Oscar Nights. We'll see the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors team up to battle old foes, face old demons and friends, and Moffat asserts we'll see the series set up for the next 50 years ahead.

Not bad for a little show that started out in an obsolete studio with a tiny budget and big ideas.

50 Years of Who - I Believe in Her!

After Christopher Eccelston departed at the end of a single series, the role of the Doctor was picked up with both hands by David Tennant. A lifelong fan of the show, Tennant took his excitement and exuberance for the series and channelled it into his interpretation of the Doctor, creating a Tenth Doctor who was among the most energetic and manic of all. But for all of his wit and exuberance, Tennant also highlighted the loneliness of the character, as well as the burden of his moral code. This was the most nakedly emotional Doctor yet, and the bond with Rose that had been building during the Ninth Doctor's era became a full-fledged love story during Tennant's era, though one that was never overtly acted upon. The Tenth Doctor's era was one of bigness; big threats, big emotions, and gigantic bombast, and a wonderfully big portrayal at its heart.

This more emotional approach to the character, combined with Tennant's great charm, drove the series to the heights of popularity, re-establishing it as a vital part of British culture, and opening the door to the global success it enjoys today.

In the clip below, Rose and the Doctor find themselves on an impossible planet, one that is a stable orbit around a black hole. They soon uncover the planet is actually an ancient prison, designed to hold the Beast, a powerful being that claims to be the basis for the Devil in all religions. Cut off from the TARDIS, the Doctor encounters the Best while Rose escapes in a rocket:

Back tomorrow with our final instalment!

50 Years of Who - "Nice to Meet You, Rose! Run For Your Life!"

In 2005, nine years after the broadcast of the TV Movie, and sixteen years since the classic series went on"hiatus", Doctor Who returned to the BBC as an ongoing series.

The road back had been long and filled with detours. The hopes of fans had been kept alive during this period through original novels as published first by Virgin books and the ten by the BBC itself following the TV Movie. Also, a company called Big Finish productions, founded by fans, somehow got the license to produce original audio plays starring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and eventually Eighth, Doctors and their companions. All of this ancillary media was well-done and enjoyable, but fans still longed to see new adventures on their television. Many thought it would never happen.

But then along came Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner. Davies was celebrated television writer at this point, having created the original version of the groundbreaking Queer As Folk. Gardner was a producer and script editor who had recently been appointed to BBC Wales as Head of Drama. She immediately set to bringing back Doctor Who, and asked fellow fan Davies to head up the revival.

Women of Interest

Taraji P Henson as Person of
Interest's Joss Carter

It's entirely possible that I could wind up sounding like a total ass in this post. So, allow me to preemptively apologize for any idiocy that may result. The reason for my apology is this; I'm a white male about to write about the state of women characters on television. Yeahhhhhh, I'm THAT guy.

I was thinking back to the 1990's the other day. I was just sitting in my car, lacing up my Air Jordans, checking my undercut in the mirror and putting in my cassette of Please, Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em and it occurred to me that the 1990's had probably more well-drawn, interesting female characters on TV than we do right now, twenty years later.

Don't believe me? Let's list a few shows from that decade with some iconic women characters: Roseanne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, My So-Called Life, Daria, Homicide: Life on the Street, Ellen, The Powerpuff Girls (it counts), Xena. And, yeah, there was also Melrose Place, but at least there were options, and you didn't have to look hard.

Look, I know that people could comment below more than a few shows that feature great female characters; I know they're out there. But I'd like to talk about a show with some solid characters that maybe won't be one of the expected ones.

"The Night of the Doctor" - Prequel to the 50th Anniversary Released!

Today the BBC released the prequel to the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special The Day of the Doctor. Feast your eyes on it below:

So, that was…pretty damn cool. The Eighth Doctor returns for the first time in 17 years, and it's awesome to see Paul McGann in action again. Also nice to have the John Hurt Doctor finally explained. Just over a week until the big day!

50 Years of Who - Are You Any Good at Setting Alarm Clocks?

In 1996, after a seven year absence, Doctor Who returned to TV. In the seven years since the BBC put the series on hiatus, there had been numerous attempts to revive the series with varying degrees of fidelity to the source. I recall reading about a rumoured production that was to star Denzel Washington, for instance.

But producer Philip Segal would be the man to finally get a Doctor Who project off the ground as a TV movie produced by Universal Television for the Fox Channel in the US, with the BBC co-producing and showing the film in the UK. Rather than rebooting the franchise, Segal was adamant that it be a continuation of the classic series, a fact assured by Sylvester McCoy's return as the Seventh Doctor in the early minutes of the film. But this was also made as pilot for a proposed US-made television series, so it had the nearly impossible task of being made for long-time fans and first-time viewers. The result, it must be said, did not entirely work. It relied on mystifying continuity but also contained several changes to that continuity. It was a servant of two masters and therefore truly satisfied neither.

It had things that did work, chief among them some solid effects work and the wonderful performance of Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. In the clip below we get a very good idea of what an ongoing TV series with this Doctor and his companion, Grace, would have been like. It's a real shame that, to date, this is McGann's only on-screen appearance in the role.

If anybody out there is curious to experience more of the Eighth Doctor, I wholeheartedly recommend the fantastic audio plays he's been doing for over ten years for Big Finish Productions.

See you soon for more of 50 years of Who!

"The Day of the Doctor" Trailers Released!

Hi, all. I'll keep this one short. The Beeb has released a couple trailers for the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special The Day of the Doctor. Check out the epic goodness below:

First the short TV trailer:

And here's the extendo-rama one:



Now the wait is even more excrutiating!

50 Years of Who - Every Great Decision Creates Ripples

After Colin Baker's unceremonious firing, Sylvester McCoy took over as the Seventh Doctor. Initially depicted as clown-like character, McCoy and new script editor Andrew Cartmel quickly began working to bring mystery and darker shadings back to the Doctor. Over his tenure, the Seventh Doctor morphed into a manipulative master-planner, not above deliberately misleading or keeping secrets from his allies to ensure victory. During this time, Cartmel also took a different approach to the role of the companion. Ace was a troubled young girl from 20th Century Perivale that the Doctor first encountered  on another planet in the far future. How she got there was a bit of a mystery, and in Season 26 there was an extended arc where the purpose of several stories was not just your standard adventure, but a deliberate attempt by the Doctor to help Ace move past her troubles and become a better person. This approach foreshadowed the more emotional tone the Doctor/Companion relationship would take on in future.

Sadly, with ever-decreasing episode counts to the seasons and ever-dwindling budgets and ratings, the 26th season of Doctor Who would be the last for the classic series, and Doctor Who would disappear from TV for seven years.

In the clip below, from Remembrance of the Daleks, we get a clip the perfectly encapsulates the melancholy and mysterious tone of the Seventh Doctor's era, where he questions the merits of his grand schemes:

And as an added bonus, here's the final scene from the final episode of the classic series:

See you soon for more classic Who!

"Thor - The Dark World Review", or Please, Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em!

L to R: Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth)
and unconvincing CGI sky. Are they even
outside?

With the recent announcement of its partnership with Netflix to create four new super-hero series, as well as the success of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and following its merger with Disney, it has to be said the Marvel Studios brand is now one of the most successful and well-known out there. I'm reminded of the feeling audiences used to have for Pixar. All you had to see was that logo with the desk lamp, and people said, "I'll go see that."

Marvel's latest big-screen release, Thor - The Dark World, isn't anywhere near as good as Pixar at its best. It's not even Marvel at its best. But it does have enough of the best qualities of the Marvel style to wind up being a fun time at the movies.

50 Years of Who - Consumer Resistance

In 1984, Colin Baker (no relation to Tom) took over the role of the Doctor from the outgoing Peter Davison. Baker initially had tremendous enthusiasm for the role, wanting to outlast Tom Baker's seven year run as the Time Lord. Unfortunately, he was becoming the programme's leading man at the exact moment where the series entered its most troubled period, a period that would eventually see the series put on hiatus for decades.

After Davison's warm, vulnerable and relatable Fifth Doctor, producer John Nathan-Turner and Script Editor Eric Saward decided to make the character of the Sixth Doctor more off-putting, more challenging. He would hearken back to the irritable and irascible William Hartnell, and in many ways go even farther, with the plan being that Baker's Doctor mellow over time. In his first adventure, addled by a difficult regeneration, he actually attempts to strangle his companion Peri. It was a bold choice, and arguably the wrong one. Combined with Nathan-Turner's decision to dress the Doctor in a "tasteless" outfit, there was initially little for the viewer latch onto when it came to the Sixth Doctor.

Random Double Feature: The Bad and the Bogie-ful

Welcome to another edition of Random Double Features! This time out we've got a doozy for you, half of which I'm going to have to apologize for. The top half of the bill is a picture from Warner Bros. in 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart called All Through the Night. The bottom half is a picture from the seventh concentric circle of hell via Italy in 1960 and inexplicably called Atom Age Vampire.

All Through the Night is the first picture Bogart made following his star-making turn in The Maltese Falcon. As was usual for Bogart during this period, he got the lead when other actors turned the roles down. The film was originally written for newspaper columnist Walter Winchell, who backed out. Then, as with most stories like this about Bogie, George Raft was approached. He too turned it down, another role in a long line that Bogart took on to success and acclaim.

Bogart stars as "Gloves" Donohue, a man about New York that is not so subtly implied to be a gangster. Okay, it's not even implied, he's basically Arnold Rothstein. In any case, Gloves has two major peculiarities; he eats cheesecake from a particular bakery three times a day, and he can't refuse his mother (Jane Darwell) anything. When the baker of his cheesecakes turns up dead, his mother convinces him and his mob to look into the murder. Their nosing around uncovers a ring of Nazi spies operating in New York, planning to commit a major act of sabotage that only Gloves and his crew can stop. Basically, imagine the cast of Guys and Dolls going up against the bad guys of Raiders of the Lost Ark and you'll get some idea of how wonderfully bonkers the whole thing is. These aren't hard-boiled mobsters, they're played for laughs in the Damon Runyon vein, and played by some absolute top notch comedic stars like William Demerest, Phil Silvers, Frank McHugh and a young Jackie Gleason. The Nazis are similarly well-cast, with Conrad Veidt, Peter Lorre and Judith Anderson doing their villainous best.

50 Years of Who - Always The Perfect Guests

After seven years in the role, Tom Baker gave up being the Doctor, and the mantle passed to Peter Davison. Davison was only 29 when he was cast, and he had an incredibly difficult job ahead of him. He was succeeding a man who simply was the Doctor, who embodied the programme in the minds of the viewers. That's a big challenge, one that could only be met by playing the role so completely differently that comparison would be impossible. Thankfully, Davison was canny enough to do exactly that.

His Fifth Doctor was more vulnerable, more excitable and far less remote and alien. He was moody and easily frustrated. Like the Second Doctor, he was more affected by the events around him. He was like a favourite teacher, travelling on an extended school trip with a few favourite pupils. And still there was a touch of the "old man" that lurked beneath the surface of his portrayal. In this clip, he confronts an old enemy, the Cybermen, who had been absent from the series for seven years:





 

 

 

 

See you soon for more Classic Doctor Who!

50 Years of Who - Until We Meet Again, Sarah

For years, when various polls were conducted asking fans who their favourite travelling companion of the Doctor was, the answer would come back Sarah Jane Smith. There was just something about the intrepid feminist journalist that all viewers loved. Played with incredible warmth and charm by Elisabeth Sladen, Sarah Jane made her debut in Jon Pertwee's final season as the Doctor. But it was her remarkable chemistry with Tom Baker that made her a British TV institution. So much so, in fact, that when she left the series in 1976, it was front page news. The Fourth Doctor had called her his "best friend" and there's little doubt that it was true. Enjoy her terrific farewell scene from the closing moments of 1976's The Hand of Fear:

She had returned to the series in 1983 for the 20th Anniversary The Five Doctors (as well as having a spin-off that lasted only one episode in 1981), but her return to Doctor Who in 2006 introduced a whole new generation to Sarah Jane Smith in the episode School Reunion, this time alongside David Tennant's Tenth Doctor:

The popularity of that appearance led to a new spin-off children's series called The Sarah Jane Adventures, with further cross-overs during the Tennant era and into Matt Smith's era as the Doctor. The series ran for 5 seasons until Sladen's untimely death in April of 2011 at the age of 63. The companion against which all others are measured, she is missed.

50 Years of Who - The Definite Article

Jon Pertwee had played the Doctor for five seasons by 1974, taking the series to new heights in popularity. When he left he was replaced by the relatively unknown Tom Baker, whose career at that point had stalled to where he was working on a building site when he was cast as the Doctor.

Pertwee had played the Doctor as a cool and superior man of action, his largely Earth-bound stories and his straightforward approach gave his Doctor more of a human feel than his predecessors. A genuine eccentric himself, Tom Baker's approach to the role emphasized the remote and mercurial alien side of the Doctor, melded with an off-kilter sense of humour. The result was a performance that instantly captivated audiences and helped lead the series into what many consider its golden age, both critically and popularly.

Baker would remain in the role for seven years, and for many, he would come to define the program. Before the revival of the series in 2005, and perhaps even today, when the general public thought about Doctor Who, it was Tom Baker they thought of. The clip below comes from Baker's debut story, Robot, and it shows him already creating a performance that would leave an indelible impact.

See you soon for more from the 50 years of Doctor Who!