What I'm Watching and Reading -- Damages and John Adams

With the Bar Exam behind me, and with moving into my new place pretty much complete, I've settled into a nice pattern of doing nothing as I try to recharge and get ready to start work and the real world in April. I wake up, watch Morning Joe that I DVR, eat lunch, read books and watch my DirecTV and newly growing collection of Blu Ray DVDs, I watch Hardball, and well, life is good.

So what have I been watching and reading (aside, of course, from MSNBC political coverage)? Mainly one set of DVDs and one biography, at least for now. First with the DVDs, I've started watching Damages, the FX show about a cut-throat (literally as well as figuratively) law firm run by Glen Close. Close's firm is running a hundred-million dollar class action lawsuit against a crooked CEO played by Ted Danson, and the show is told from the perspective of the firm's newest associate, who may have only been hired because of her connection to a key witness in the case. The show flashes back and forth from the present time to the past (where the bulk of the story takes place) as the viewer tries to piece together why things did not turn out so well for the young associate (being arrested for murdering your fiancée is never a good ending). The cast is great (and has anybody ever realized that Tate Donovan, who plays Close's confidant, looks like a twin brother of former DNC Chairman and current Hillary Clinton campaign chair Terry Mcauliffe?) and the show is very addicting. I've been hooked on the episodes and I may finish blowing through them this weekend (there are only 13). Great show, well worth checking out. Sort of like The Firm on steroids.

Damages has been so addicting, I've fallen behind in reading, and getting through a fair number of books this month was a key goal of mine. Instead of continuing and trying to finish one of the numerous books I'm in the middle of (I read through half of Bill Clinton's My Life before law school started and never finished it, and there are numerous sports books, including Mark Frost's The Greatest Game Ever Played I'm partway through) I started reading David McCullough's biography of our second, and mostly overlooked President, John Adams. While Washington and Jefferson get most of the headlines in the history books, Adams was no less important, and HBO, next week, will begin airing a multi-part mini-series) based on McCullough's book starting Paul Giamatti as Adams and the great Laura Linney as his wife Abagail. I'm about 100 pages in right now, and as to be expected from a McCullough biography, it's a great read. I was hoping to have the 400-page-plus tome finished by the premiere on March 16, but that's looking less and less likely by the day, but I'm going to try.

The Lightning Round

Lots of little stuff to get today, so let's get started with a check on the Go to the Polls for Placido! voting campaign.

** You never know how much of an impact a small little internet campaign can have on a large scale voting contest, but I would like to think the "Go to the Polls for Placido!" campaign is making an impact. From looking at my traffic reports I can see a lot of "outclicks" to the All Star Ballot and I can only hope and assume those are votes for Placido and the rest of the Detroit Tigers team. MLB should be releasing updated voting numbers in the next few days, hopefully by then Polanco will be leading the pack. I've also been thrilled with the amount of blogs and websites that I have helped to promote the campaign, it's been much appreciated. Here's a list of the blogs (that I know of) who have encouraged their visitors to Go to the Polls for Placido!

Gregg Henson of GreggHenson.com
Greg Eno of Out of Bounds and Where Have You Gone, Johnny Grubb?
Kurt of Mack Avenue Tigers
Samara of Roar of the Tigers
Ian of Bless You Boys
GreenPotatoes Live Journal
Rick of Rick's Writing Again
If I missed your blog/website, just let me know and we'll help spread the word. The more eyeballs on the campaign and voting for Tigers, the better chance Placido has of overtaking Cano, and who knows, maybe even Magglio Ordonez will climb into the starting outfield, as he certainly deserves that after his MVP-worthy first half so far. The campaign has also popped up on Digg.com, BallHype, and BallBug so it's getting around the internet. Thanks again to everyone for helping out.

** So what else is going on? I'm trying to read more. I wrote just over a month ago about a book shopping trip I had gone on, picking up five top titles I was looking forward to reading. Sadly, I haven't accomplished much on that front. And I blame the Detroit Tigers. Not really, but by the time I get home from work and have dinner, the Tigers have usually started playing, and they have taken priority over my books. But, with a night off tonight, I got back to Jon Meacham's American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation and it's been great so far. So far, the book has talked a lot about religion before the Founding, in the 1600 and 1700s in North America, and it's a fascinating read. I'm going to make more of an effort to spend more time reading going forward.



** Another reason why I haven't been reading is because this weekend, instead of picking up one of my many unread books, I was watching Seinfeld instead. Seinfeld - Season 8 was released on DVD last week and I watched probably 10 episodes on Sunday. Just hilarious. While likely not the "best" season of Seinfeld, it's still very very funny, and I've very much been enjoying the "Inside Looks" and "Yada Yada Yada" cast and crew commentaries (though, Jerry Seinfeld's commentaries are a bit disappointing as he spends most of the episodes laughing at the jokes). Great stuff.

And with that it's Monday night, which means it's time for Headlines on Leno. So, I'll leave you with a reminder to Go to the Polls for Placido!

The 4400 Season Three DVD Review

The best show on television that you are not watching (and that you never have even heard of) is USA Network's The 4400. While as I have said in the past, I am not a science fiction guy by nature, despite the sci-fi elements of The 4400, I became quickly addicted to the show thanks to it smart storytelling, great actors, and compelling characters. In fact, one of the reasons why I initially disliked NBC's Heroes was because I thought it was a rip off of The 4400. And while the two shows are similar in concept (ordinary people have special abilities and must use them to save the world from disaster) both shows are excellent. Chances are, if you like Heroes, you will love The 4400.

Basically, in a nutshell (and please, while the description of the show may scare you off if you dislike science fiction, the show is really a character drama) 4400 people were abducted and vanished without a trace over a 60 year period from 1940-2000 (or thereabouts). Then, one day, they all returned, all in one place, without having aged a day from when they were taken, and some had special abilities (like being able to heal people, see the future, ect.) Over the last three seasons we have learned that these people were taken by people from the future, given special abilities, and seeded back into the timeline in hopes their abilities and return would save the world from its coming future, which isn't pretty. Here's the opening video to show which gives you the gist of the show's background.

While that's the background for the show, the reason why the show is so great is because of the characters and storytelling, not the science fiction elements. Jacqueline McKenize (a very underrated Australian actress) and Joel Grestch play Diana Skouris and Tom Baldwin play two NTAC agents (think Homeland Security) who keep tabs on a number of the 4400, including pre-teen Maia (who can see the future and was adopted by Diana) and Shawn (Tom's nephew who can heal people with his hands and was trust into leadership of The 4400 when his mentor, Jordan Collier, was "murdered", but we'll get to Collier in a moment). The true star of the show though is Billy Campbell, who plays the aforementioned Jordan Collier, evil (?) leader of The 4400. Campbell is exceptional in the part because you never really know what Collier is doing, whether it is for good, or evil, or maybe both. I'd say more, but that may give away parts of the story, which may ruin your viewing of the show for those that haven't watched it yet.

One of the reasons the show is so great is because of the relationship between the characters and the pitting of The 4400 versus the government, as nobody can quite tell whether we should embrace or eliminate the 4400 returnees. So why am I writing about the show today? Because The 4400 - The Complete Third Season was released today and trust me, this is one TV set on DVD you'll want to pick up.

It's a fast watch (13 one hour episodes) and the DVDs are packed with special features. 5 of the episodes have commentaries, which include, in varying episodes, McKenzie and Gretsch, co-creator and director Scott Peters, and executive producer and 4400 mastermind Ira Steven Behr. You can tell by listening to the actors and producers talk how much they really enjoy working on the show, and you get great insight into some of the mythology and backstory of the show. I listened to all of the commentaries on the past DVD releases and I've already checked out the McKenzie, Gretsch, and Peters commentary on "Gone (Part 2)" (one of my favorite episodes of last season) and it was a great listen. There are also five featurettes, including a blooper reel and lots of behind the scenes segments looking at both the characters and how the show and its stories are told.

New episodes of the The 4400 for its new season start June 17 on USA Network so you have plenty of time to pick up the DVD set and get caught up. The First and Second seasons are also available (the first was a 5 episode mini-series so if you want to try out the show first, that's a good way to go, but the season really hit its stride in years 2 and 3) through Amazon at the links below. This is a show which doesn't get a lot of publicity because it's on USA, but it's great, and this is coming from a non science fiction fan who loves the show. Give it a chance, you won't regret it.

This Week's DVD Release: The Pretender Movies

Before there was Lost (a character drama clouded in the aura of mystery) there was a show on NBC broadcast on Saturday nights titled The Pretender starring Michael T. Weiss, Andrea Parker, and Patrick Bauchau. Like Lost there was lots of intrigue and mystery with The Pretender (and like Lost most of those mysteries went unanswered by the time the show went off the air following its fourth season). Even so, the show had a compelling and satisfying overarching storyline throughout its run and yet was also able to re-invent itself from week-to-week, keeping things interesting, and allowing those casual fans the opportunity to watch the show without getting caught up in the often confusing back story.

For those that have never seen the show, The Pretender was essentially this generation's Quantum Leap, as the shows share a lot of similarities. For those that haven't seen Quantum Leap either, here's the basic rundown. Jared, played by Michael T. Weiss, was a child genius who is a "Pretender", which means he can basically become anybody he wants to be without much trouble. Think Catch Me If You Can. Lawyer, doctor, race-car driver, you name it, Jared can study and do it. When he was a child, Jared was stolen from his parents by a Delaware organization known only as "The Centre", which exploited his genius for their research. They had him run simulations and used the findings to fund terrorist attacks, murders, kidnappings, the whole nine yards. Eventually Jared (because, of course, he's a super-genius) found out The Centre was using his genius to harm people (it had been explained to him that his simulations were saving people) and he escaped, with the hopes of finding the family he never knew.

So the show basically went on for four seasons with Jared searching for his family while each week stopping to help those in need. He would use his "Pretender" skills to right wrongs (sound familiar Quantum Leap fans?) by assimilating himself as a doctor, forest ranger, business man (whatever was needed), uncover the truth behind a recent death, and force the perpetrator to confess to his or her crimes. The first few seasons also saw Jared assimilate into society by trying ice cream for the first time, and experience things the Centre shielded him from when he was a child. Jared, though, was always looking over his shoulder because Patrick Bauchau's Sydney (Jared's de facto father and genuinely good guy caught in an evil organization) and Andrea Parker's Ms. Parker, Centre employees, were chasing after Jared, always a step behind, trying to bring him back to the Centre. What made the show great was that while The Centre was evil, both Sydney and Ms. Parker were fully developed, complex characters, who you often felt sympathy for, despite their role chasing after the "good guy" in the show, Jared.

So why am I reminiscing tody about a show that has been off the air since 2000? Because tomorrow, on DVD, the two Pretender Movies are being released on DVD, The Pretender 2001 and Island of the Haunted.

See, after NBC canceled The Pretender in 2000, there were still a lot of loose ends to tie up (as there often are on canceled television shows) so TNT stepped up to the plate and financed two television movies to "wrap up" the series. These are those two telefilms and while they don't answer all the key questions (the producers have said they had a third film to truly wrap up the series planned, but they never receiving funding to make it) for any Pretender fan, they were certainly welcome in 2001 when they aired, and they now complement the rest of the seasons of the show already released on DVD.

It was an exciting show, and you always kept watching because you wanted to see if Jared would eventually be able to reunite with his family. The goings-on at The Centre were also prominently featured and were more than strange. There was always something more there than met the eye, but you never knew quite what it was. Like the mysteries behind Lost's island and numbers and Dharma Initiative, you kept watching because you wanted to know why the Centre truly was after Jared, what the true purpose of The Centre was, and of course, you wanted to know if Jared would find his family.

As much television as I watch now, and as much as I love a lot of the shows on TV now, I often miss some of these old, great shows, like The Pretender. Watching the DVDs as they came out made me appreciate the show even more the second time through, even more so than I did when I watched them back in high school when they first aired. I look forward to re-wacthing the movies as I continue to hold out hope that one day, that third movie will get made, and the story of Jared, Miss Parker, and the Centre will be fully told.

What I'm Watching: Boston Legal -- Season Two

So as earlier mentioned, I have the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam coming up a week from today (it's a test, with the Bar Exam, which must be passed before one can practice law) and while I've done a bit of studying for the exam over my Spring Break from law school, I've spent more time watching my DVDs of the second season of Boston Legal. Television shows based on the practice of law are not new. David E. Kelley, creator of Boston Legal, has had some of the best, including The Practice, from which Boston Legal spun off from. The Practice is supposed to be released on DVD this year and the first two seasons of Boston Legal are already available. Other than Shark airing on CBS (Thursday night @ 10:00), and the various formations of Law & Order, which aren't so much legal shows as they are criminal procedurals with some law thrown in (depending on the version), Boston Legal is one of the only legal shows left on TV, but it is a great, great show. It's both funny and topical, serious and entertaining, James Spader's Alan Shore and William Shatner's Denny Crane are some of the best characters on television. Sure, sometimes the storylines are outrageous, but as I currently watch an episode from November 1, 2005, as Spader's character rants against the Iraq war, the show's old episode are as relevant today as they were when they first aired.

Plus, the characters break so many ethical rules on the show, it is great review for the upcoming MPRE, as the lawyers at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt likely would have been disbarred had this been reality TV instead of a television drama. In any case, well worth checking out the DVDs, or failing that, tuning in Tuesday's at 10:00 on ABC.