House of Lies ended without the bang promised by its finale’s title, “The Mayan Apocalypse,” although it did hit harder than I would have envisioned earlier in the season.
Originally, I started writing about this show in conjunction with Californication (which also ended on Sunday), contrasting the thematic overtones overlapping in the two shows. Thankfully, the show stood its ground with enough uniqueness to warrant its own, albeit scatterbrained article by this here writer.
Despite Californication‘s blur of themes in its fifth season finale, it’s wound me up for a somber season six. I was entertained, amused, moved, and for the most part, quite pleased with this run’s story arc. An arc just strong enough to overshadow any of my meandering misgivings.
One more episode till both Californication and House of Lies are in the rear view. The former is ending its fifth season, while the latter is a mere babe in its first. And if it were a competition, I’d say it were Hank and not Marty who’s captivated my interest, tugging at my heartstrings like a marionette.
As a timid apology to my readers, I deliberately kept quiet about last week’s episode of The Walking Dead (“Better Angels“), as I wasn’t sure what to make of its cliffhanger. For that, I am sorry.
Not good or bad. A work in progress. I guess.
That’s more or less ripped from a line in episode 8 of Californication (“Raw“; directed by Bart Freundlich), in reference to Hank’s younger counterpart, Tyler (Scott Michael Foster; Becca’s boyfriend). And in a round about way, that’s pretty much how I’m feeling about the series at the moment.
To me, season two of The Walking Dead presents a twisted Walden-like experiment gone awry. While citing B.F. Skinner’s utopian novel is certainly an atrocious stretch worthy of flesh-rotting infection, be sure to read on to see what I’m getting at here.
Now that we are past the midpoint of the alpha-male programming I’ve written about in the past, I figured it might be a good point to revisit some of my thoughts about Showtime’s Californication, and in a smaller way, House of Lies.
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As far as I can recall, the last pair of instances in TV history where spookfiends snacked on weekly treats of sexy macabre, putrefaction and horror kitsch were thanks to the erstwhile Tales From the Crypt and (perhaps) my personal cult fave, Twin Peaks. The former a HBO production; the latter being the murder-mystery-slash-psychodrama-series on ABC, created by nightmare-cinema auteur David Lynch. Sure, there have been other attempts at serial horror and creep since then. But nothing quite like the two aforementioned bits of TV chimeras ever quite measured up, now did they?
Last year, that all changed. Horror fans around the country cozied up against the pilot episode of American Horror Story, a refreshingly risqué horror-drama FX series that pushes the boundaries on what TV-MA really means.
I didn’t initially think I’d want to do this, since television show reviews seem to be a quick hit grab in many a site, and they offer content that seems to be just a rehash of something I probably have already seen myself.
Notwithstanding, after watching the third episodes of both Californication and House of Lies, I couldn’t help thinking about the article I initially wrote after watching the respective season premieres.
Last week, I saw the season premiere of Californication, along with the very popular premiere of Showtime’s new House of Lies, starring Don Cheadle. I’ve been a “Hank Moody” fan for the past four seasons, so I was already looking forward toward the new season, but I caught on to House of Lies out of mere curiosity, not knowing too much about it beforehand.
I suppose I’ll leave a full-on review on either of these two series till their respective finales, but as I watched the second episodes of each of these shows, it got me to thinking.
Last month, when I stumbled across a race-bating news item — concerning a backwoods Baptist church in eastern Kentucky that had banned mixed-race couples from joining its congregation — I knew I had something to write about. I just thought I’d be more effusive when I actually got to writing it. I mean, I like thinking about race and religion, but I was underwhelmed by the story for a few reasons. Expect some generalizations and no apologies.
Showtime series Homeland wrapped up last Sunday, and as usual with me, I’m a little bit late with my commentary, but this was just a little too good to pass up. Continue Reading…