Stream of Conscience

Rag Dolls

I really liked this episode. I hesitate to say I love the show with only 2 episodes aired, but I’m quite taken with it. I’d hoped they’d cut back on the eccentricities of the supporting cast, and they did. Akani (Grace Park) was still flirty, but it wasn’t brazen. Swenton was genuinely funny, without being obnoxious.

The episode was titled “Rag Dolls,” which is apparently slang for female surfer. I was especially interested to watch the show as the title character was played by Alona Tal, who had played the ill-fated Jo in the second season of Supernatural. She played Jackie, an 18-year-old surfing enthusiast whose mother was concerned about her sudden erratic behavior. Mom was afraid Jackie was using, yet she consistently came up clean on drug tests.

I thought this episode was stronger than the first. The beginning was very emotional on two separate fronts, and it gave the recurring cast the opportunity to show their range of talent. The show continues to showcase the dichotomy between William Banks’ two worlds by interweaving the story of his mission with that of his family. Banks’ team in action is savvy, for the most part, but they do make mistakes. Some are serious, but others are absolutely hilarious.

And while the ending was somewhat pat, it was satisfying nonetheless. Perhaps the highest praise I can give is that I found myself not wanting last night’s show to end. Here’s hoping the third installment is as good… or better.

Benjamin Bratt was back on tv last night with the premiere of The Cleaner. I wish they would have titled the show “Cleaner,” but nobody contacted me for my opinion. And while the premise sounded hokey—an ex-addict who talks to God tries to save people from their addictions—I was still going to watch.

I didn’t really get excited about the series, though, until I finally watched “The Woodsman” with Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick. I watched it about the same time that “The Andromeda Strain” first appeared on A&E. What I’d seen of Bratt’s performance in “The Andromeda Strain” hadn’t really impressed me. The character was an intelligent, highly-educated scientist who, despite his penchant for womaning, wasn’t really all that interesting.

His role in “The Woodsman” was much more of an every-man, scruffy and blue-collar. And it seemed to suit him much better. I felt it was possibly the same type of character William Banks, “The Cleaner” of title, was meant to be. And that’s what got me really interested in watching the show.

The reviews of The Cleaner have been highly mixed, from “the best new show of the season, if not the year,” to “not addictive.” Now that I’ve seen the premiere, you can put me on the scale as being closer to “best” than to “not.”

A show’s premiere is usually not the best indicator of what it’s capable of being. There’s too much exposition, the characters’ personalities are exaggerated in order for them to stand out, and usually the episode’s plot takes a back seat to the overall premise of the show.  I recognized all these things, and thus was willing to forgive its sins.

I liked The Cleaner.  I think it’s a great vehicle for Benjamin Bratt.  The character is dynamic, but very flawed.  He means well, but doesn’t always do the right thing.  The supporting characters are also quite interesting, although they were a bit over the top.  The flirty femme fatale (played by Grace Park, from Battlestar Gallactica), was a bit too sexual; the chatterbox Swenton (who kept putting his foot in his mouth every time he opened it), a bit too comical.  But they’re interesting enough to want to know more; and hopefully their back-stories will be explored as the season progresses.

I think the show hit its mark  in a number of places, most notably with Banks and his family.  He’s not the perfect dad, he makes (BIG) mistakes, and he doesn’t always learn from his mistakes.  His family’s reactions to what he does (and doesn’t do) are very real.  And, it moved me to the point of tears.

In case you didn’t know, there was a 4-hour remake of “The Andromeda Strain” on A&E Memorial Day weekend. This was of interest to me because it starred Benjamin Bratt. (I was such a fan at one time, I created a web site for him. I maintained it for nearly 10 years, but found my interest waning, so just this summer relinquished it to someone else, who is taking good care of it.)

When I first heard the news of the remake, I checked the book from the library and read it. While I enjoyed the book, I thought the ending was a major cop-out. In retrospect (and after watching the original movie), I think the way Michael Crichton wrote the book, looking at it from the mistakes that were made, made it sound more interesting and suspenseful than it really was.

Speaking of the original movie, the one with Arther Hill, it showed up on Encore last month. So of course watched it. It followed the book very closely. But, oh my God! The “music” in the opening credits was the most painful thing I’ve ever heard. And it went on & on (this being made during the time when all credits were shown in the beginning of the movie, rather than the end). And the movie itself? It was like watching paint dry. No, wait. Watching paint dry would have been more enjoyable. The female character (who had been male in the book) was given the most grating personality. I don’t recall the book character having been annoying. I suppose they felt they had to make her so gruff in order to explain how she got to such a high level.

Surprisingly, there was brief nudity in the original movie, including a gratuitous and totally unnecessary shot of a woman’s breasts. *roll my eyes moment*

I finally finished watching “The Andromeda Strain” remake in its entirety last night. I was surprised that A&E allowed the characters to say “shit” and its derivatives. Perhaps the rules for A&E as a cable station are more lenient than broadcast networks. (But when they aired the show in the 7-9 pm time-slot, the “bad words” were blanked out.)

So, what did I think? Of the three versions, this latest was by far the most interesting. Of course, the story was beefed up to fill 4 hours, but even the portion that dealt with the Wildfire team was changed enough to make it interesting, and yet it was fun to see what portions of the original story were kept. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but I don’t think it was a bad as many of the critics thought.

The critics really disliked the addition of the story of the reporter played by Eric McCormack. The character didn’t bother me, and his insertion with the National Guard troops could have made for an interesting story. But instead, he got mixed up in a conspiracy perpetrated by the sinister NSA director that was a little way over the top.

The ending of the mini-series veered from that of the book and movie. And while I thought those endings were a cop-out, the final scenes in the mini-series really pissed me off. No one in the book or movie died.  Not so with the mini-series.  The conspiracy story got way out of hand.  The President, who up until then had been admirable, gave the impression he didn’t care about Wildfire’s findings. And Benjamin Bratt, er, Dr. Jeremy Stone, gave an interview to Eric McCormack’s reported that made absolutely no sense at all.  And worst of all, it gave the impression that all the work done was for naught.  Highly dissatisfying.