gaelicguy

I'm sure, by now, most know the premise of the series - Sandy Kominsky (Michael Douglas) is an acting coach with his own school. We come in on the series as Sandy's latest crop of students files in, Sandy's best friend and agent, Norman Newlander is dealing with the terminal illness and subsequent death of his wife.

The two men have formed a very close bond, replete with barbs, disagreements and all of the elements that make a friendship challenging and rewarding. Sandy has a daughter, Mindy (Sarah Baker) from his first marriage to Roz (Kathleen Turner) - the thrice -divorced Sandy begins to date one of his students, Lisa (Nancy Travis) - what follows is a witty, thoughtful exploration of characters in their "twilight" years, coping with the travails of old age, loss, grief, etc. If all of this sounds depressing, it is at times, but ultimately, it's a mixed bag of the absurd, hilarious and the deadly serious.

I enjoyed Douglas's Sandy interaction with Arkin's Norman - these two are nothing short of wonderful and the series is peppered with guest appearances by Danny DeVito, Ann-Margret, Jane Seymour, Barry Levenson, Morgan Freeman, and many more. I didn't find Mindy's character nor her relationship with the much older Martin (Paul Reiser) nearly as compelling as Sandy's ups and downs, travails and triumphs.

I did think it a bit cheesy that Chuck Lorre, the series' producer, director and writer, enlisted regulars from his TV series (Two and a Half Men, Mom), indeed, there's a scene in Season Two where two of Sandy's male students prepare a scene FROM "Two and a Half Men" that I found off-putting - and though I am in recovery myself, you can bet that a Lorre production will have a character whos an alcoholic/drug-addled mess, to wit, Norman's only daughter, Phoebe (Lisa Edelstein) - I rather think Lorre is in recovery himself, because these characters ARE beautifully drawn and portrayed, here and in his sitcoms, to his great credit.

No spoilers here, but a caveat - if you have ANY issues about aging, if your buttons are pressed about what longevity brings to bear inevitably, steel yourself - nothing is glossed over, and again, in its perceptive and spot-on writing and acting, growing older is depicted honestly - but no matter - the series is SO worthwhile and whatever qualms one might have will be whisked away by a rapier wit and compassion for its characters that makes this series so engaging, rewarding and absolutely worth your time.

I just wasted nearly two hours of my life watching one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen, I had heard great things about it, it sounded like an interesting concept, and to be fair, it does start off very well and draws you in. Young Chris Washington, an amiable fellow who's a professional photographer goes to spend the weekend with his white girlfriend's family - he's nervous, as most young men are when meeting their girl's family and that his girl hasn't disclosed his race to her parents puts him even more on edge. At first blush, her parents are typical upper-middle class professional pseudo-liberals - even without what follows, they're not at all likable - the young woman has a brother who looks like white trash, gets drunk at the family dinner that evening and, in his passive-aggressive way, really wants to kick the crap out of Chris. There's an extended family gathering that weekend - which makes poor Chris even more anxious, but he outwardly calm and unflappable and is a good sport, if only to please his girlfriend.

I won't disclose what happens next - but the story just devolves into abject stupidity. Pointless, in my view, violence and a denouement that is anti-climatic. I couldn't wait for this film to be over - for a film that got off to such an interesting and promising start, I was greatly disappointed.

If the message here is that white people have a desire to continually subjugate Blacks, meh - as a white man, I can't even take umbrage at that because A) I'm not sure that's what Jordan Peele is trying to assert and B) in its execution, it's just plain silly and mindless.

Nota bene - I rented this from Netflix on Blu-Ray - there was a very clear message that if you WANT to see the bonus features, which looked very interesting, you had to OWN the DVD - the Netflix copy was a no-frills, movie only copy - really? Is this something new or Universal being withholding and just plain idiotic. Speaking for myself, I can't recommend this film - it's a cut above a made-for-television feature - it tries, in its way, to bring a "Rosemary's Baby" suspense to it and it just fails miserably in that regard - perhaps they were aiming a bit too high.

** spoiler alert **

One of the series' very best episodes, tragic news arrives at Eaton Place for Rose. Sgt. Wilmont has been killed, Rose is inconsolable, and the entire downstairs is rocked. Hazel does her best to comfort Rose but is dealing with her grief with the news of Lt. Jack Dyson's death, which is front page news. In an incandescent scene, one grief- stricken woman does her best to calm another with the advice to seek comfort in prayer. In the meantime, a broken James returns home and does his best to explain to his wife what's happened and why he no longer believes in the unimaginable horror of this conflict. It's here that we begin to see the unhinging of James Bellamy. "The Glorious Dead" are not only the heroes who have sacrificed their lives - they are used and, even manipulated, by the living for the purpose of psychological survival. The episode is a tour de force, thematically, dramatically and, without revealing the denouement, fiercely and intensely moving. It is a bravura 50 minutes of riveting television viewing and, a searing meditation on the abject waste and nightmare of violent conflict.