It's Not An Olympic Sport If...

To the Olympic Committee:

Here are some guidelines that I think you should enforce.

It's not an Olympic sport if ...

... you need to wear sequins to win

... you need a theme and a costume

... you need a broom.

Lupin the Third

So I'm watching the local free Japanese channel and I see this




and I think, "What the hell?" Everything about it caught my attention — the style of the animation, the clipped storytelling, the strange 70s feel of it all. Well, it turned out to be a cartoon called Lupin the Third and its provenance was truly strange. The cartoon series is based on a Japanese manga series written by Kazuhiko Kato whose pen name is Monkey Punch. The lead character, a thief, is Arsene Lupin III and he just happens to be the grandson of Arsene Lupin, who just happens to be a gentleman thief in a series of novels by the French author Maurice Leblanc. Because of the complicated intellectual property issues, for years, the cartoon couldn't be released outside the US under the Lupin name. OK. Is anyone still with me?

The plots are surreal and ridiculous. But the cartoon itself is an interesting drug trip. Below is a link to a full episode. Called "Farewell My Beloved Witch", it is truly, truly bizarre.

WATCH "FAREWELL MY BELOVED WITCH"

The Good Wife

The Good Wife is doing really well here and in the UK. I'm not surprised. There's something very intriguing about it. Strangely, for me, the intriguing portion is not the family drama, which is dull, but the courtroom drama — and I've really come to hate courtroom dramas!

Basically, The Good Wife is a very sophisticated Agatha Christie — nothing is as it seems but it all gets figured out. I suppose part of the appeal is that there is just so little adult drama. I think we're all a little sick of whimsy and cutesy, the knowing voice overs, etc. But, sadly, as my post demonstrates, there isn't very much to talk about. Oh, well.

Actors Who Should Have Their Own Show

I nominate the following.

Ken Marino: in a nice surreal comedy where he can flex his incredible comedic/dramatic skills. Even though he's been on TV for years, I didn't really notice him until Reaper — the show was totally goofball, but not Ken and the way he portrayed his gay fallen angel, going from sweet to goofy to frighteningly evil in a mind's blur. He deserves so much more than an occasional anonymous bit part in shows like Greek. BTW, did I mention he's totally hot?

Christina Hendricks: I really liked her in Firefly, so how about a sci-fi adventure dramedy where her curves can literally kick some male ass.

John Slattery: in a comedy where he can play a total goofball who always gets the girl.

Conchata Ferrell: in a drama because this lady can seriously act. Seeing her sleepwalk through Two and a Half Men breaks my heart.

Harriet Sansom Harris: I really miss seeing her on TV; while she was delicious as Bebe in Frasier, I want to see her in a drama.

Wayne Knight: I don't care what he's in, he's always so great. Whether as the hateable Newman in Seinfeld or the lovable cop in 3rd Rock, he can always make you laugh.

Me. I'm not an actor, but I feel like I really need to be in a nice comedy. One in which you meet nice new people in nice cozy situations and everything always works out every half hour, where there's always a yummy catering truck and someone does my hair and make-up on a daily basis.

Gap Holiday Kids Ad

Every year there's always one Christmas ad that's really fun. This year, my vote goes to the Gap kids ad. Vibrant, sassy, fun. So much better than the adult version (really dead in comparison). Go, kids!



Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Greek Men

You can definitely tell that women are doing some of the serious writing on this show because the men of Greek are so lovable! They are so lovely, you just want to squeeze them into a s'more sandwich and each them up. (For my more detailed account of Greek, you can click here.)

Rusty: big-eyed, innocent, sweet, awkward, likes to plunge into love — how adorable is that!
Cappie: witty, fun, big-hearted, oh-so-naughty.
Beaver: beefy, hopelessly simple-minded, earnest and cute.
Max: all his nervous ticks are so endearing — and he can fix your cell phone — and count cards — and he'll probably rake in the bucks working for some evil defense contractor.
Cal: every straight girl's fantasy of a gay buddy.

So what's with the girls? The only lovable girl is Ashleigh. And she gets punished with no love life. :(

*Update: Ashleigh: OK. She gets punished with a boring love life.

Good Morning, Miss Dove

Thinking about Jennifer Jones made me think about Good Morning, Miss Dove and how a sappy, mediocre movie can become memorable thanks to one actor's performance (in this case, the luminescent Jennifer Jones as school teacher Miss Dove).

Good Morning, Miss Dove is a pure 1950s film, folks. Sappy sentimentality thickly drips off every scene. School teacher Miss Dove is seriously ill. Her life depends on the expert surgical hands of one of her former students. Without Miss Dove's guidance, he probably wouldn't have become a surgeon. Without Miss Dove, half the population of this little town would probably have fallen off a cliff, literally or metaphorically. The only thing unsentimental about this film is Jennifer Jone's portrayal. She doesn't ooze love. She's didactic, stiff, morally uptight, rigid. When one of her former students comes to her with a broken heart, blubbering about how this filthy rich man dumped her — "Oh, what should I do? What should I do, Miss Dove?" — Miss Dove coolly tells her to get down on her knees and thank God she was dumped. And it works out, because the dumped girl runs into the surgeon outside Miss Dove's classroom and they get married, living happily ever after in Small Town Ville. Yeah, Miss Dove!

About the only time you see Miss Dove smile is in a flashback of her youth. She's a lively, romantic young girl who's just gotten engaged to a hunky, sweet geologist. All her dreams are coming true. You see, Miss Dove dreams of exploring the world — she has a passion for adventure and knows everything there is to know about every part of the planet. The geologist is going to sweep her off to exotic lands, he digging for rocks, she exploring and savoring culture. But then her dad dies and her dad has left behind a mountain-sized debt. She has two choices: she can run off with her geologist hunk as advised by the family friends who are also the bankers, or she can stay behind and spend the rest of her life paying off her dad's debt. She chooses the latter. And she's so honorable, she doesn't even tell the geologist why she's calling off the engagement, lest he uses his own money to bail her out.

That's how she becomes a geography teacher, talking about lands she'll never see.

It's heartbreaking, watching her make that decision. Watching her kill off the center of her happiness. Her life has become sacrifice, a sacrifice to honor, debt. Not that she plunges into self-pity or becomes angry. She's just dead. Of course the movie doesn't allow for that. We watch as she becomes an excellent teacher, redirecting her children's negative energies to positive ones, from bullies to appreciators, would-be criminals to productive members of society. Teaching isn't really about geography but the fine-honing of pre-adults. Yes, yes, but what about Miss Dove? You can see it in Jennifer Jone's eyes, the aloofness of her presence, how she never firmly attaches to any one of her pupils. She cut all that off the moment she decided obligation over life. And that's what makes the movie more haunting than it was probably intended to be. All because of Jennifer Jones.

The final scene shows Miss Dove recovering. The surgery was a success. She, as a teacher, was a success. But we see the toll of dedication: when the surgeon and his wife tell her they are expecting a child, she murmurs about how she's going to have to get better just so that she'll be able to teach this child. Out of love? No, out of exasperation. She thinks the surgeon and his wife are pretty silly, and the product of such silliness is going to need all the help she can give it. Well, I guess that's one reason to keep on living. And God knows, we all need a reason.