Homeland

One of the best things about coming home on break is having unlimited (& FREE) access to your parents seven hundred some odd cable channels. I've been taking advantage of this all week, and I've since become addicted to a great Showtime show- Homeland.

Homeland stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer who's job is to track and find information on suspected terrorists to prevent the next terror attack on the United States. The show also follows U.S. Marine Nicholas Brody, played by Damian Lewis who is finally rescued after being held as a prisoner of war by Al-Queda in Syria for 8 years. Brody returns to the United States a hero, but Carrie is convinced that he is actually a threat to the country after being turned by Al-Queda, and plans to carry out a mission for them.

The number of characters and story-lines on this show is ever-expanding, but that's what makes it so interesting. It is necessary to be an active viewer just to keep up with the story and everyone involved in the suspected terrorist groups. A big part of the show focuses on Carrie's struggle with bipolar disorder, which she keeps secret from her co-workers. It is interesting to see not only how government officials and the CIA are portrayed, but also how Carrie's disorder affects her demanding job and personal life. Claire Danes plays this role phenomenally, and has won multiple awards for her portrayal of Carrie Mathison.

I'm almost done with the first season of two so far, and I can't wait to finally be caught up. I would definitely recommend this show.

A Great Show

One televisions show that I enjoy and I think a lot of other people on this campus enjoy is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  This is a show about 5 friends that own a bar in philadelphia and go on crazy antics with different schemes each episode.  Each character is funny in a different way and they are all very self-centered.  With the Emmy awards coming up, I was surprised to see this show not nominated for Best Comedy.  I wondered why, because it has gotten a lot of critical praise.
     One thing about this show is that it is not flashy.  Aesthetically, it is nothing special.  The low budget probably plays an factor in this.  But there aren't any crazy camera shots or special effects or zooms that make this show special.  To sum it up, the show is shot in a very simple, unchallenging way.  Now I'm sure there are difficulties with filming and that not every shot is super-easy, but in comparison to other shows, this show is shot in a very basic way.  What separates this show from others is its writing and acting.  Its writing is what makes it so funny.  And the actors are brilliant with their characters.  This proves a belief that good acting and good writing can trump something that is aesthetically pleasing.  That the writing and acting are just as if not more important than the way it is filmed.  Here is one of my favorite clips from the show.

Halloween=The Walking Dead

About this time last year, I started watching a new television series on AMC called The Walking Dead. With Halloween around the corner, this new show is packed with guns, violence, and you guessed it, zombies. The second season just started up this past Sunday, and left the audience in shock with a surprise ending. Compared to the other zombie movies and shows, this one definitely has the most realistic looking zombies and a practical plot that every other zombie movie is missing. After a virus breaks out, a group of survivors are forced to leave their home in attempt to find a secure location that hasn't been infected yet. There is no vaccine and they are getting by day to day with what they can find. The streets are blocked due to all the traffic that tried to escape, so the use of vehicles is almost imposs
ible. This is what a zombie apocalypse would be if one

were to happen in the US.

The presentation of the zombies is awesome. Each one is unique and acts differently to the one standing next to him/her. The makeup artist and costume designers both won awards for last years season at the Saturn Awards Ceremony for TV shows. Below you can see a before an after picture with the makeup and effects. Picture

Last, I wanted to comment on the music and sfx in the show. Almost every dramatic scene is silent on this show. At first, I didn't like how they were setting the tone, but later I realized that with no music, you could never tell when something was gonna happen or pop up. You can't guess, which sometimes pisses me off, but makes for great TV. The Walking Dead is a mini series and I seriously suggest you catch up on the episodes if you want a good scare and plot. You can find all the episodes at amctv.com or 1channel.tv. Any questions or comments, please ask. I love discussing this show.

Dexter: A Good Way to KILL Some Time

I love television but there is one show for me that sticks out above all the rest and that is Dexter. Dexter is a show on Showtime about Dexter Morgan, a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metro police department. The first season was based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. Dexter is your average guy except for one small difference; he kills people. One of the reasons I like this show besides from the suspense it creates is how it makes the viewer feel for Dexter. Even though he kills people, he only kills bad guys and other killers. So in a way he is an anti-hero and the viewer almost roots for him to escape so he can rid the world of evil. It brings up a good question. Is Dexter a good person doing bad things or a bad person doing good things?

Besides from great storytelling and acting, done especially well by Emmy nominated actor Michael C. Hall who plays Dexter, the production team makes some interesting and great aesthetic choices. First off the color of red is everywhere. Dexter will drink red wine and eat red meat. Streetlights behind Dexter’s head will often be red. Red, obviously, is supposed to signify blood, which Dexter sees a lot of. Another example is what they do to show the different sides of Dexter. When Dexter is the good, average Miami citizen upbeat Latin music plays against the sunny Miami city. The colors are bright and the world just seems happy. However when Dexter is acting as his “dark passenger” the lighting becomes chiaroscuro. There is a sharp contrast between light and dark (which is a metaphor for the sharp contrast between his two sides). Soft and creepy music also plays as Dexter slowly lurks in the dark.

Harry Morgan, a cop and Dexter’s dead adoptive father, will interfere with Dexter’s life and remind him about the code they set up so he will not get caught. Whenever Dexter sees him the scene gets a little blurry and the lighting becomes brighter, especially around Harry. This could be interpreted like Harry is Dexter’s guardian angel, a mystical figure coming back to help Dexter when he needs it the most.

One of the greatest aesthetic pieces of Dexter is seen every week in the opening credits, which is Dexter’s morning routine. There are many close ups and extreme close ups that show Dexter getting ready for the day. All of these show his precision and his eye for details. It is also edited in a unique way. First it is edited into “choppy” segments (pun intended) and like a horror movie the killer is not revealed until the end (Dexter is finally visible in the last few seconds of the video). These shots, especially in extreme close ups, also look very scary and brutal. For example when he tightens the lace on his shoe or cuts into a piece of meat, it looks like he is strangling someone or cutting into a body. It’s practically his killing cycle! The audience will definitely know what they are getting themselves into as they watch these credits! Finally despite all of these scary images his morning routine is very similar to ours and is supposed to show no matter how crazy or demented Dexter is, he is still human. He shaves, flosses his teeth, and locks the door to his house as he leaves just as we all do every morning. In a way he is just like all of us (except he finds very different ways to use his free time).

For more information on Dexter, check out it's Showtime website. The new (sixth) season premiere is October 2nd!