Wild Palms, une vie sans histoire

"Politics have no relation to morals" Machiavelli.

When in 1993 "Wild Palms" was released on television it didn't stand a chance. Misguidedly compared to the hit series "Twin Peaks" - which was wrong in every sense of the word - WP was not well-received. Misunderstood by critics and viewers alike the show never got the praise it still deserves today.

"Wild Palms" is an opera, a new age fever dream that predicted a future in which the public gets manipulated through the media with the purpose of creating a fascist society that reduces people to drugged zombies with hardly any notion of reality.

Sounds familiar ?

In an age of redundant and uninspired remakes this is THE show that should be remade for a contemporary audience as this is the world we are currently living in. Ironically the fictional reality of "Wild Palms" has caught up on our current state of mind, our politics and the media worldwide.

Watch this show for the creative worldbuilding, the atmosphere and the drama while ignoring the bad acting, the plot holes and the ridiculous last 15 minutes. Get on the "Wild Palms" trip and be amazed about how accurate the predictions made 30 years ago would become.

The real credit for WILD PALMS should go to Bruce Wagner and his flowing, prosaic dialogue. It's like classic Film Noir crossed with cyber-speak, doused with a fifth of Single Malt Scotch and set on fire. There are so many clever, nimble phrases that are turned on their axis and spun into something entirely different.

Examples:

"Mystery loves company."

"Do you know how much it hurts to be SHOT IN THE CHEST??"

"You're no General! You're a pimp with the wings of a bat!"

"You've got quite a mouth on you! Take care someone doesn't take a needle and sew it up."

"Weak dog! You stillborn calf! YOU MAKE ME VOMIT!"

Granted the whole package is a little hard to take in all at once - it's one of those things that becomes more interesting the more you watch it. And for everyone who argues it ends with a whimper, not a bang, well, you may be right, but I posit that The Senator, Harry's real lineage, The Go Chip, and the Mimezine are all besides the point. Enjoy it for one of the campiest, cleverest, most intelligent scripts ever written for television.(Thank You Bruce Wagner) This is a project that is not only entertaining to watch, but a JOY to listen to. It's FUN.

When this mini series was first broadcast, most people had never used a computer, the NSCA Mosaic browser (later to become Netscape Navigator) had just been coded. Thus allowing those with a data connection to graphically browse content at glacial speed. But just consider the list that follows which tallies their actual occurrence.

The Web = The web Tony Krietser =Donald Trump Chickee Levitt = Mark Zuckerberg Mimecom = Facebook Mimezine = Oxycontin The Florida Bomb = 9/11 The 90's Depression = The Great Recession The Fathers = Rebublicans with a capital "R" The Friends = Liberal Democrats Josie = Melania? Watch this excellent mini series with your politically astute frienew and you will have a BLAST finding current and near current tie-ins. Then you'll have one final question. "Where did Olivier Stone get a time machine?!"

WP has a rating of 7 here and that is what it merits. I saw some of the series back in 93, but have just re-watched it all. The quality of the cinematography is excellent and in that area the series holds up well. However, there are some major downsides to WP. One and the most important, some of the acting is incredibly bad, to start with, that of Belushi. The Trivia section says he had no idea what the story was about, so he simply recited his lines. One has the impression, most of the time, that he did just that. Loggia is Loggia, another Type A, overacted performance. Catrall starts off weak, but gets better. Angie is the real disappointment. She looks great and is perfect for the part, her clothes are fine, her scenes some of the most intense, but her acting is often wooden. I find Delany the best and most consistent, though other reviewers don't like her. The music is overblown and the one good piece, the background music to the most intense scene, the ending of Hungry Ghosts, is obviously influenced by P Glass's music. The series shows its influences clearly: 60's counter-culture, Scientology, and perhaps a little less obviously, Meet John Doe. In fact, for me, the latter is the main thrust of the series. However, the way the story is handled leaves something to be desired. It is too neat and clean, not open ended. However, the series obviously had some major influence itself. Those are easily seen in the Matrix series, in Caprica, and most obviously and essentially in Inception. Nolan would probably deny it, but half of Inception is lifted from WP. So, kudos for an idea that has had some mileage. Also, the series has been compared to Twin Peaks, but there is little to compare really. As said, the acting of WP is not esp thrilling whereas I find not a single character is weak in TP. The music for Badalamenti is far superior to that of Sakamoto. Both series look excellent. One area where WP beats TP is that WP is a closed story, a true miniseries. TP got out of control and thus lost some of its power. However, for me, TP is still a series I could re-watch without problem. So, finally, at the end of this long-winded review, WP is good, but not great. It would a great choice for some sort of re-imagined series à la Battlestar Galactica.

It's a pity it wasn't released 5 years earlier: the mood created by cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Phenomenon, Cool Runnings) is so eighties-like, the great Michael Mann (L.A. Takedown, Manhunter, The Insider) must like it, if only visually: it's very clean and cool. Except Mann usually adds some really excessive displayals of power with lots of shooting (Miami Vice) and lots of music. Wild Palms is far more subtle. The great score was created by legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence). The chosen hit songs (Where the streets have no name, Hello I must be going) just add slightly to the mood and you really have to pay attention to the songtexts. And notice the subtle fashion statements, like the sober collars? There are 5 episodes directed by 4 directors, one of which is Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Point Break, Strange Days): Strange Days (1995) is a nice movie about more or less the same subject but without the aesthetics and the good acting. James Belushi is great, Robert Loggia and Angie Dickinson must be the devil themselves.

Wild Palms may feel like 'Dynasty - the play - set in the future' about families in multimedia instead of oil. The story IS about media monopolies and law-suits (MS anyone? - Church Windows): there seems to be no credible independent justice system anymore in this future. There are family intrigues, but definitely never really feels like a soap opera. However, one of the flaws of Wild Palms is that you can see that it is made for tv because you can see where the commercials are supposed to be. Wild Palms is quite lengthy, but I just couldn't wait for the next episode to be broadcasted seven days later. I wouldn't recommend trying to watch all episodes at once, because the pace is rather low. Cut it down to 180 minutes and you can show it in a theater (although Warhol's 'Empire' wasn't cut down a minute...). Definitely more interesting than 'JFK' and 'Nixon' together.

9/10