A Little More Californication

So after watching the latest episode of Californication on Showtime OnDemand the other night, I blogged a little bit of interesting text from the show. The next morning when I woke up and checked blog stats, I discovered that my traffic had gone up like 1000%! Come to find out this was because Showtime (via the Blog Buzz section of their Californication page) had linked to my blog entry from their site!

How cool is that?

 Anyway, while I wait for another epi of Californication, I figured I would just throw a compliment Showtimes way for all the great shit I have been seeing from them lately. I found and fell in love with “Dexter”, watching all 12 episodes nearly back to back.  I then turned and watched “Brotherhood” episodes 1-11 in like three days. Not as intense and addictive as “Dexter” but pretty damn good nonetheless.

I tried watching “The Tudors” but only made it through episode 3 before getting a little bored, and turned my attentions to “Californication” which at that time only had the first two episodes on OnDemand. 

The first episode was a fucking eye-opener… how often do you see a nun offering a scruffy guy a blowjob in the middle of a church, under the watchful eyes of Jesus? That was in the first 30 seconds of the first show, no less. Also in the first episode, our 40ish main character (David Duchovny) has violent sex with a 16 year old girl (though we don’t know she’s 16 at the time) who just happens to be the daughter of his ex-girlfriend’s new fiance!

I was sure, and proven correct, that people were going to be PISSED. After watching the first two episodes, I cruised all over the web looking for feedback on what people thought of the show, and was not even the least surpised to see that, yup, shit-tons of people (mostly, from the sound of them, conservative christians – go figure) completely flaming this series, the actors, producers, Showtime, and anyone who would be so without shame as to watch a show this evil.

Oh, and by the way – it’s funny as hell.

 So in closing, some quick ratings:

Dexter (Season 1) – 10/10
A serial killer with a Code, he only kills people he has determined to be truly evil. Working by day as a forensics specialist in blood spatter analysis, Dexter uses his job to help find those criminals that have escaped traditional justice, and bring them his own type. Great show, with a seriously intriguing morality behind it.

Brotherhood (Season 1) – 7/10
A very gripping storyline of an up-and-coming politician in Rhode Island whose life is thrown askew by the return of his violent, criminal older brother, who disappeared 7 years before. As older brother steps back into his old ways, beginning to amass power in the criminal world, younger brother begins to parallel rise through the power structure of government… and we find that the two arenas are not very different.

The Tudors – 5/10
Compelling drama of the politics and personal life of Henry VIII… very cool historical drama, but for some reason just didn’t keep my interest past the third episode. However, must point out that the girl playing Anne Boleyn is sexy as HELL.

Californication – 9/10
Hank Moody, an author who recently made it big-time when his book was picked up and made into a major motion picture… that he hates with a passion.  The whole thing is primarily a character piece, as Hank is probably one of the most fucked up guys I have every seen… He’s still in love with his ex (who is getting married, and they share custody of their 12 year old – very precocious – daughter), but passes the time getting drunk and stoned, having sex with everything in sight, spewing his vitriol out on the blog he’s been hired to write, and somehow coming out of all this with the viewer feeling sorry for him and liking him… did I mention that it’s funny as hell?

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Okay, didn’t mean for this to get so damn long… Showtime : thanks a ton for the link, and keep finding / producing / whatever it is you do to put shows like these on the air! I haven’t watched this much TV since The Soprano’s first came out! (Boo HBO, Yay Showtime!)

Rome Is Burning

(this is not mine, it just sparked something in me, thought i would share)

Rome is burning, he said
as he poured himself another drink
yet here I am, knee-deep in a river of pussy

Here it comes, she thought,
another self-indulgent, whiskey-soaked diatribe
about how fucking great everything was in the past
and how all us poor souls born too late
to see the Stones at wherever
or snort the good coke like they had at studio 54
well, we had all just missed out
on practically everything important
and the worst part was, she agreed with him

here we are she thought, at the edge of the world
the very edge of western civilization
and all of us are so desperate to feel something
anything
that we keep falling into each other
and fucking our way to the end of days.

(for full credit – this came from an episode of the Showtime series, Californication. Yet another of my new favorites. Showtime kicks serious ass.)

Dexter #2

Seriously. Go watch this show. Buy the DVD of Season 1. WHATEVER.

Just do yourself a favor, and WATCH IT.

I just finished watching the season 1 finale of Dexter on my OnDemand DVR system from Charter Cable…. yes, I’m bragging, I friggin’ LOVE my DVR and all the OnDemand shit I can do with it… don’t much care for the $160 a month cable bill, but that’s the price you pay…

ANYWAY – Dexter is quite simply one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen… take a simple, unlikely premise – create a sympathetic serial killer character that your viewers will CARE about – and turn it into one of the darkest, most psychological thriller shows that I have ever seen.

SPOILERS AHEAD (you have been warned):
———————————————-
Okay, so after watching all of Season 1, and having a few days to think about it, I have come to a few conclusions. First, that the writer of the book that this show was based on is truly and deeply in tune with the disturbed and damaged people of the world, and should be watched very carefully. Second, that Showtime better hurry up with Season 2, or I myself may become very disturbed. And third, that I for whatever reason can relate, can sympathize and empathize with the Dexter character… and that is disturbing in and of itself.

Dexter was 3 years old when he watched his mother hacked to pieces with a chainsaw, then was locked in a cargo container for two days with her corpse, sitting in a 2 inch deep pool of her blood. This (of course) deeply damaged the young boy, and this psychological damage is the root of his present day problems.

In a very direct way, this relates to my earlier post “Damaged”…  how it seems that everyone is damaged in some fundamental way, and that none of us realizes how much we hurt our children. I think one of the reasons I can sympathize so much with the Dexter character is that I myself was “damaged” at a very young age, and have often felt many of the darker impulses and emotions that are prevalent throughout this show.

 Okay, now I am just rambling again, and will close this “post”… more to come later I’m sure.

Dexter

Oh my god, I have found my new love, my new favorite television program.

 Dexter.

 For those of you who have not seen it, Dexter is a Showtime Original Series.  The main character, Dexter Morgan, is a forensics specialist for the Miami Police Department. He is a master at his craft, a very restrained, calm man helping to fight crime and solve murders.

 He is also a serial killer.

This dichotomy is the crux of the series, and the thing that I find most interesting. Dexter is a man who as a child came to understand that he was different, fundamentally different. He is lacking in any sort of inner morality, an alien among us – and the worst part is that he KNOWS this.

Dexter is the kind of kid who would have grown up to be a serial killer, would have killed innocent people to satisfy the urges within himself, until he was eventually brought down a la Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, etc. Fortunately for Dexter (and the world), he had a step-father, Harry Morgan – a Miami police officer who understood who and what Dexter was, and taught him several important things.

To blend in, to appear to be like everyone else, to not stand out.

To cover his tracks – Dexter’s job in forensics is a direct result of Harry’s teaching him about police procedure and evidence gathering.

Most importantly….. WHO TO KILL. Harry teaches Dexter to use his curse for good.  To kill only those who deserved killing, those who killed innocents.

So Dexter is a serial killer who hunts killers.

More on Dexter later….. God I love this show!