A Little Time Travel Fluff

Are there any other time travel fans out there who have been following the American network show Sleepy Hollow? It's not the finest television viewing available, but for those of us who love the idea of time travel, it's pretty entertaining, not to mention the fact that it feature the super gorgeous Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane. To be honest, it wasn't so much the premise of the show, but his supreme hotness that initially drew me in. Also, though, I like the fact that the other main character is a black woman, and that there are lots of people of color in major roles on the show. This fact adds a particular level of interest that would have been missed if police detective Abby Mills, played by Nicole Beharie were white, because when she finds Crane stumbling down a deserted highway near the town of Sleepy Hollow, New York after he's awoken from a curse of suspended sleep in his tomb, not only is he freaked out by the modern things he comes in contact with: cars, paved roads, etc., but it's a black woman, dressed like a man, a person who would have been a slave in his time, whom he first has to deal with.

Since the first season in 2013, it's been crazy fun to see this man from Revolutionary War days wrap his mind around our modern world. His reaction to it all, and Abby's attempts to explain it, are the best things about this show to me. I could give or take the witches and demons they are endlessly battling, but I live for the moments when Crane is trying to figure out what yoga is, for example, or how to manage a cell phone. The last show of this season was my absolute favorite though: when Abby gets transported back to Crane's time of 1776 or thereabouts, and is taken for a runaway (albeit weirdly dressed) slave. She has to convince Crane that he knows her in the future, because he, of course, hasn't met her yet. She begins to persuade him because she knows things about him and the war that only someone from the future would know. And, in a wonderful stroke of genius on the part of the show's writers, Crane takes her to Benjamin Franklin who is fascinated by her and by her claims of time travel, and believes her because he assumes time travel will be possible in the future.

If you're a fan of time travel themes and haven't checked out Sleepy Hollow yet, you can probably see it on Fox On Demand or catch the 1st season on Netflix. I'm not promising any thing mind-blowing, but it is a bit of good, fluffy fun.

Safety Not Guaranteed - A Movie for the Nerd-Girl

I want to share with you an oddly romantic little film I recently saw on Netflix. I don’t know how this 2012 gem slipped by me before, since it’s about time-travel and I’m obviously interested in all things time-travel related. Yet you don’t have to be a nerd-girl to love it. It’s called Safety Not Guaranteed, and it stars a slew of American TV actors who, in this film, certainly earn their place on the big screen. They include Aubrey Plaza of the “The Office,” Mark Duplass from a current popular show called “The Mindy Project,” and Jake Johnson, unlikely charmer from Zooey Deschanel’s “The New Girl.” As a matter of fact, the only real film star in it, appearing briefly, is Kristen Bell of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Safety Not Guaranteed is about a magazine writer and two interns who set off to investigate a personal ad which calls for someone willing to volunteer for a dangerous time-travel mission.  Thinking it has to be a joke, Johnson’s character, Jeff, agrees to cover the assignment, but only so he can hook up with an old girlfriend in the town where the personal ad originated. He brings Darius (Plaza) who goes to get away from being the office go-fer, and they drag along Arnau, a shy, East Indian intern played by Karan Soni. This unlikely team tracks down the man who placed the ad, a 30-something schlub named Kenneth, played by Duplass. Darius, being the more-or-less attractive woman of the group, is elected to approach him. She convinces him of her dedication to his project though he seems like nothing more than a deluded weirdo. He’s certain the government is following him, thinks he’s an expert in martial arts, and is supposedly building a time machine to take him to the year 2001 in order to correct a tragic mistake. Darius plays along, telling him that if she could go back to 2001, she would stop her mother from being killed in a gas station robbery. Sadly, that is her reality. As she goes along with Kenneth’s strange “training” methods, she begins to see him as an interesting and sensitive figure and becomes pulled into his reality. Jeff, in the meantime, essentially uninterested in the assignment, focuses his attentions on the girl from his past, and Arnau is simply at everyone’s beck and call.

What’s beautiful about the story is that we are rooting for Kenneth and Darius’s success, even as we’re convinced he’s a crackpot, and worry that Darius is being taken in by him and getting involved with activities both ridiculous and subversive. Everyone in the story seems like a loser on the surface. Yet the satisfying ending turns that idea on its head. My husband and I actually cheered out loud at the climax of the film. This is a sweet, funny, and very quirky tale that has a surprisingly tender quality. Whether you find it on DVD or as a download, do seek it out. It will leave you with a smile on your face.

http://www.chicklitclub.com/movie-night.html#safetynotguaranteed

More About HBO's The Newsroom...On Fire!

Just watched the season finale of HBO's The Newsroom last night. This first season was a total of, maybe, ten episodes altogether, which changed my life. In the final episode, viewers are reminded of something we've heard about, but perhaps isn't foremost on our minds: voter ID laws - a way of keeping people who wouldn't normally vote for you from voting at all, like, maybe, people of color. Something like 38 states have passed some form of these laws. This is scary, and it looks like nothing can be done about it before the next election. In my mind, it's one more way for politicians to get what they want by manipulating elections...shameful and completely undemocratic.

Some people are saying The Newsroom is a left-wing rant, but I disagree. However, if by left wing, one means disagreement with the philosophies of the Tea Party, or even daring to believe that church and state should be separate, then yes, I suppose it is. The highlight of the season finale is when anchorman Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels, states that the Tea Party is the equivalent of the American Taliban. On the show, his character receives over a hundred death threats for issuing this statement, which is backed up by a list of beliefs the Tea Party harbors that truly mirror the Taliban's. I wouldn't be surprised if writer Aaron Sorkin, the producers of the show, HBO, and poor little Jeff Daniels himself will receive threats now - but they had to know they were taking the chance.

The Newsroom is simultaneously the bravest, most interesting, intelligent, and entertaining show I've ever seen on TV. Ever. The next season doesn't begin until June 13th, 2013 (how will I live 'til then!), so you have plenty of time to catch up using On Demand, Netflix or however you can. If you're not watching this show, you're missing something huge.

HBO's The Newsroom: Oh. My. God.

I admit, I watch television. You'd be surprised how many artsy friends I have who eschew the tube in favor of...say...reading, or sitting around engaged in meaningful conversation. As an author, I'm certainly in favor of reading, and partake of it daily. I also love the art of conversation, which is actually a part of my television watching. My husband and I, and often my twenty-year-old son, enjoy discussing in detail what we see on TV, including the commercials. Being a writer of popular fiction and screenplays, I feel it's important I keep my finger on the pulse of pop culture. Does that excuse my watching The Deadliest Catch? Probably not, but it was worth a try.

Emily Mortimer and Jeff Daniels in The Newsroom

Around our house we've been having the liveliest conversation lately about the show we all consider, hands down, the best thing on television: HBO's The Newsroom. Haven't seen it? Oh my god, pay HBO just for the privilege of watching this one show. In lieu of that, pray that the first season comes out on Netflix the moment it culminates which is in, like, a week. Starring Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Emily Mortimer, Jane Fonda, and Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire), it's so much more than great acting, or the fast-paced, hard-hitting, cracker-jack dialogue written by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network; The West Wing). Here's the premise: A cable news show, called News Night, has been trundling along for years reporting everything that comes off the wires at face value without bothering much to see if it's factual. The anchorman, Will McAvoy, played by Daniels, is a popular guy along the lines of Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer, who considers himself a journalist, to be sure, but who has long ago resigned himself to delivering news as, basically, entertainment. In order to shake things up, the president of the cable network's news division, played by Waterston, hires a new executive producer for News Night, Mackenzie MacHale, played by Mortimer. She is determined to make the news just that: the news again, hearkening back to the days of Murrow and Cronkite. She and her fresh team of journalists and interns are all committed to this exercise. Though at first thrown by the turn of events, Will soon jumps on board. He is a self-proclaimed Republican, but he now refuses to spew right, or left, wing conjecture or opinion. His news broadcast will report nothing unless it's checked out as completely factual. This makes for some riveting, nail-biting moments, when, for instance, every other news show is reporting that Congressman Gabby Gifford has been shot dead, and News Night would rather lose ratings than confirm such a thing without being sure. For this reason, they are often the first to report the correct news story. The owner of the station, evil Leona Lansing played by Fonda, is only interested in ratings and every time News Night disdains ratings in favor of the truth, she flips out and threatens to fire Will. Besides the tension with  Lansing and/or her son, there's lots of sexual tension as well because Will and Mackenzie are exes who still have a thing for each other in spite of past heartache, and the former executive producer, who still works at the station, is dating one of the interns who has an unfulfilled crush on another intern, and vice versa. It's so far from a soap opera though, it's not even funny. People don't talk to each other on this show, they spit, they crackle, they fling their words. It makes you wonder how anyone could stand the pressure of working at News Night. But since you don't, you, or at least, I, just can't get enough of the thrill of watching it all unfold.

Alison Pill as intern Margaret Jordan

I know, I'm obsessively prattling on about it...because I don't want anyone to miss it - seriously! My son, who digs True Blood, has agreed that The Newsroom far outshines that vampire sex-and-blood-bath. I'm even willing to say The Newsroom is as good as The Sopranos - yes, that good - but to tell you the truth, I'm sick of gangster series. I was into Boardwalk Empire for a while, and I enjoy Magic City, though it's practically soft porn, but, frankly, I'm tired of the sex, violence and misogyny. The Newsroom has women in superior positions to men, and they deserve to be because they're smart and interesting. They're also human and vulnerable, as is everyone on the show (with the possible exception of Leona Lansing) and that's what makes you love it.  The only violence is what News Night may happen to be reporting at the time, and since the show takes place about a year and a half in the past, we already know what to expect. It's fascinating to revisit those moments such as the Gulf oil spill, the liberation of Egypt and the killing of Osama Bin Laden. We not only get to experience the events in retrospect, and remember how we reacted at the time, but we learn some fascinating facts about what really happened, backed up by true-to-life sources. Sometimes it's scary.

 

Dev Patel as Journalist and Blogger Neal Sampat

In summation, do not walk...run...to get a hold of the episodes that have aired so far: eight of them, in season one. You'll thank me, trust me, you will.