driker22

Stephen King is a prolific and excellent writer but quite frequently he tends to use far more words than are really necessary. I found TNT's first two "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" episodes to accurately reflect Mr. King, at least in the too many words area. OK, there certainly weren't too many words in Combat, but I found myself falling into an "enough already stupor" around minute 35. I certainly hope Karen Black did not watch this episode or she will spend another twenty years avoiding her bathroom.

"Crouch End" put us into a quaint village, then a ratty warehouse district, then a largish downtown. I will admit to not having read Mr. King's story, but the shooting locations and the script (and frankly the acting)left me generally uninterested in this "little bit of everything" production.

Take one fashionable screen writer. Add two fairly good actors. Have them play the mismatched kooky girl and the dull guy. Add one well-worn science fiction gimmick. Switch around in time (we're fashionable, remember). Shake, don't stir. The result, a herd-mentality flock of incredibly long-winded reviews.

I didn't like either one of these characters. I didn't care about their relationship. Concerning the lovely ending -- I give them six months! (Oh -- IMDb told me I need at least ten lines. Maybe that explains the lengthy reviews. I felt that my seven original lines were quite enough to give my opinion on this over-blown film.)

I started watching the first episode of "Deadwood" when it originally aired on HBO. The swearing really put me off -- and they didn't use a single term I haven't used myself on occasion. It was just so much and so distracting that it annoyed me. I just couldn't continue and I turned it off after ten minutes.

My son felt much the same way but he stuck it out and then watched episode 2 last weekend. He felt episode 2 really got the story going into potentially fascinating directions and he has urged me to try again. So (having HBO -- ON Demand on our cable system) I went back and tried episode 1 again. The swearing quotient did back off a bit as the show progressed and I must admit I did enjoy the character development of the cast. I will watch episode 2 before 3 comes on this coming weekend.

BUT, Mr. Milch and friends! There really is still so much swearing in "Deadwood" that it detracts from the convincing locale, the excellent characters, the excellent script, and the generally excellent acting. Sure -- some swearing because Deadwood was simply not a Sunday school, but it seems to me that good writing dictates stricter editing of "Deadwood".