And let’s not forget the further psychological complications. In the final episode last year, House lost a patient — a young woman trapped beneath a severely damaged building. He could have died too underneath all that concrete and steel had the structure collapsed even more. So he is traumatized. And Cuddy is now in House’s apartment, not comfortable territory for her, and she has also suffered a psychologically traumatic experience: Earlier that day, she broke off her engagement with Lucas, the private investigator, and made a unilateral decision to be with House!

The title of the episode is “What Now?” So how do House and Cuddy answer that question? It isn’t much of a surprise that they begin to obsessively analyze their burgeoning relationship: Can this work? Which of us is really the one hesitant about “going public”? (Was House at all serious about making that sex tape?) They both would like to just let things be and enjoy what they have found together, but neither has the naivete or the intellectual blinders necessary for that to happen. And if they did, where would be the fun for us? We love the torture.

House hesitates to accept this new development because he fears happiness, seemingly convinced that bliss is nothing more than a temporary ruse that seduces suckers into false hope, the insidious prelude to an inevitable fall into a ghastly pit of crushing loneliness. But Cuddy knows House better than anyone else, and is well aware that he is one in ten million. So her reply to his doubts is truly extraordinary, the best one she could possibly give him. House is stunned when he realizes that her revelation works both ways.

Meanwhile, there is unusual mystery back at the hospital. While House and Cuddy are playing “house” and shirking their responsibilities at work (although House cheats a bit here by stealthily using his cell phone), Thirteen has planted clues for the other members of the team to find, indicating that she is leaving the next day for Rome to participate in some clinical trials of a new potential treatment for Huntington’s disease. Foreman, being overly concerned of course, digs further. What he finds should propel some interesting drama along this front in the weeks to come.

Can lovers work together productively? Foreman and Thirteen couldn’t, so their romantic relationship suffered and died. But Foreman ain’t House, and Thirteen ain’t Cuddy; so all bets are off. Will it be a clash of titans or a love story for the ages? We’ll have to wait and see.

At the end of season five, Dr. Gregory House — the brilliant diagnostician we either love or hate (I don’t think anyone is on the fence here) — was being led into a loony bin. We saw in season six how he worked his way out of that gnarly situation. At the end of last season, we saw House seemingly “hooking up” romantically — at long last (we knew this was coming) — with Dr. Lisa Cuddy, his boss. Any of us who have watched the show for six years might well agree that this may be an even gnarlier psychologically pickle he’s getting himself into. And try to imagine what’s in the works for Cuddy! Can two such flawed and fractured people possibly make a viable couple? The inquiry leads to further philosophical conundrums.

Is love an “emotion” or a “state of the will”? Is erotic love “moral”? These queries and many more are raised in a curious little volume titled House and Philosophy, one of a series of books containing essays that attempt to explicate complicated philosophical concepts by using icons of popular culture as teaching tools. For years I have been saying what a great show House is, and after reading that book, I am convinced more than ever of the show’s worth. The authors brilliantly illustrate how my favorite TV show provides examples of what all the great philosophers from Socrates to Sartre have been going on about for centuries: issues regarding ethics, morality, authority, reason vs. irrationality, etc. Few other narrative television programs give us this much great stuff to thing about.

So I am counting the minutes until eight o’clock rolls around and the new House appears on my TV screen. In my next article, I will give you my thoughts about “Now What?” I trust that I won’t be disappointed.

In the previous episode, Kenny, Ladder Company 62′s overweight member with heart problems, had a lot of trouble breathing in a burning building as the crew were making their way out. He almost collapsed, and the other guys had to help him, slowing their progress. Tommy Gavin’s nephew Damien, a “probey” who has been struggling with whether or not to remain a firefighter, had gone ahead of the others. He subsequently ran back to tell them to hurry up and get out. Just then, a large wall collapsed on top of his head.

The assumption viewers were supposed to take away from this — reinforced by the coming attractions after the show — was that Damien had been killed. When the finale starts, we see Sheila, Damien’s mother and Tommy’s erstwhile lover, in her bedroom apparently trying to deal with her grief over her son’s demise. When she walks into her kitchen, we are surprised to see Tommy there. He had promised Janet, his wife with whom he is negotiating a reconciliation of sorts, not to see Sheila again. And we had a clear sense that this time Tommy really meant it.

But that wasn’t the shock. After Sheila has a few words with Tommy, the camera pans back, and Sheila takes several steps across the room. Then we see Damien, crippled and apparently severely brain-damaged, sitting in a wheelchair. My first thought, knowing Tommy’s predilection for speaking with the dead, was that Sheila had somehow caught Tommy’s fever and was communicating with her son’s ghost. But then it hit me, and my heart actually thumped, that Damien was alive, if you can call his diminished condition really living. This was one of the best TV moments of the summer.

Now Tommy Gavin is in a real pickle. He had promised Janet to focus more on his immediate family, her and their two daughters, one of whom is — like Tommy — a recovering alcoholic. But Tommy’s guilt over his role in convincing Damien to become a firefighter in the first place has grown exponentially and has cemented him to his nephew and, by extension, Sheila. Where all this is taking Tommy in his excruciating journey through the emotional fires of his complicated life remains to be seen next year in the program’s last season on the FX channel. According to Wikipedia, “The [series] finale is expected to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9/11.”

The miniseries tells the true stories of the men on U-boat, U-96, during World War II.  The story covers the hunt for other boats and the excitement of battle under water. The men on U-96 are all ordinary sailors trying to do their duty for their country. Petersen was trying to take the audience into the minds of the men on the boat and he was extremely detailed oriented. As a result, the film was historically accurate and a huge success.

The production of Das Boot lasted two years. All the scenes were shot in sequence, so the actor’s appearances would be correct. This allowed beard and hair to grow as if it would have on the boat.  The actors were not allowed to go into the sunlight during filming so that their skin would get paler over time. Two full-sized Type VIIC boats were built one for shots outside and the other on a motion mount for indoor scenes.

A new camera was created to film most of the interior shots.  Cinematographer Jost Vacano’s camera design was a hand-held camera with two gyroscopes for stability. It is smaller than a normal Steadicam and was perfect for the constant movement of the set.

The story of Das Boot is told through the eyes of Lt. Werner, a war correspondent to the submarine. He observes the differences between new crew members and hardened veterans. After endless days of boredom the crew spots a British convoy and the excitement hits.  The crew faces a roller coaster of morale, storms and enemy fire but somehow seem to keep moving.

Cavett also mentions Jay I. Rodale, famous for Rodale Press and Prevention Magazine, because he’s the unfortunate individual who actually died on the set — and the only one ever, I believe, to perish during a taping of this kind of program. “If the gods are going to exercise their sense of humor as usual and have a guest die on a talk show, it would have to be a health expert,” Cavett says, exhibiting his somewhat snarky sense of humor.

Cavett is as personable as he always was, and seeing this interview reminds me of how much I miss his presence on the tube. He was always wry, witty, and intelligent enough to handle himself with whoever sat across from him. I suppose the talk show host most comparable to Cavett on television today is Charlie Rose, but his fare is usually more serious and subdued.

I don’t know if he’d be up for it or not, but if Dick Cavett got another TV show, I’d make sure not to miss a single episode.

Here is the video clip referred to above:

After college, Falk worked in Hartford where he joined the community theater. He appeared in three of the theater’s productions, including The Crucible and eventually signed with the William Morris Agency, in 1956, and moved to Greenwich Village. He appeared in a couple of off-Broadway flops before Falk was cast in the revival of The Iceman Cometh.

In 1972, Peter Falk won a Tony for his role in The Prisoner of Second Avenue. Even though Falk was receiving acclaim on Broadway, his agent advised him to explore the world of film. His first film performances were not ground breakers as he did a took small roles in less than memorable movies.

Eventually, Falk took the role of killer Abe Reles in the film Murder, inc., in 1960. This would prove to be a turning point his career. He continued the role of Abe Reles onto the small screen, in the TV series The Witness. Peter Falk was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Reles in the film.

Frank Capra cast Falk in his comedy Pocket Full of Miracles and, once again, was nominated for an Oscar. Falk appeared in many more movie roles too such as Rat Pack, The Great Race, and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

We first saw Falk on television in 1957. He did a variety of guest spots on Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, Have Gun Will Travel and many more. His first lead role was in The Trails of O’Brien which had 22 episodes. Falk appeared in many series in the 1960s and 1970s, although, his most famous will always be Columbo. The character of Columbo was from the film Prescription; Murder. Falk’s portrayal of the police lieutenant was so fascinating an entire TV series was created from this role in the film. Columbo ran for eight years and inspired several feature films.

Falk continues to appear in movies, on stage and on TV.  He has two adopted daughters with his first wife Alyce Mayo.

That is why I am so excited about a new movie I just heard about from the good people at The Fest for Beatles Fans (formerly Beatlefest). The film is Nowhere Boy, and unless you’ve just dropped in from another galaxy, I don’t have to tell you it’s about John Lennon, but I do have to say it’s not about John the Beatle, but his earlier years and his burgeoning partnership with Paul McCartney. The movie premiered in Great Britain last December, and its U.S. release is set for October 8th, one day prior to John’s 70th birthday. It was shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and I have it on good authority that the film is indeed brilliant.

I have seen only a trailer, but that is enough to make me believe what I’ve heard. Matt Greenhalgh’s screenplay is based on Julia Baird‘s memoir, John Lennon, My Brother, so I am confident as to the film’s credibility. I’ve been told that the word “Beatles” is not even mentioned in the film, and that no Beatles songs are heard, and that fascinates me even more. Nowhere Boy promises to be an insightful cinematic glimpse into the Beatles’ Precambrian period, so to speak.

As the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa once said, “It is the power of memory that gives rise to the power of imagination.” All creative artists reach back in time, often to childhood experiences, for inspiration. And John and Paul are no exceptions. There is even scientific evidence, such as that gathered by neuropsychologist Elizabeth Gould, for the paramount importance of early influences on adult creativity. And it’s clear that the early memories of John and Paul shaped the songs they wrote and sang.

Paul’s “Penny Lane,” for instance, is a sublime evocation of a world viewed through the tinted lens of memory: “In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs / Of every head he’s had the pleasure to know.” As in many stories written by widely diverse authors, we visit a barber shop, a universal place of social communion. Then we are treated to a phantasmagorical cityscape inhabited by other clearly defined, uniformed people such as a banker, a fireman, and a nurse — easily recognizable folks among whom almost anyone would feel comfortable.

Paul has talked about his mostly happy childhood relative to John’s stressful one. Compare the happy-sounding “Penny Lane” to the dark, foreboding sonic landscape of John’s childhood memoir, “Strawberry Fields Forever”: “Nothing is real … Living is easy with eyes closed / Misunderstanding all you see / It’s getting hard to be someone … ”

Could Paul have written “Strawberry Fields Forever”? Could John have written”Penny Lane”? Perhaps the answer is no; perhaps their profoundly different emotional experiences as children and teenagers precluded them from writing anything different from what they actually did produce. But their ability to combine those priceless experiences made John and Paul the perfect team. And that’s why we still care, and that’s why I can’t wait to see Nowhere Boy.

The miniseries follows the history of Rome, as told by Claudius, as an old man. I, Claudius starts with Emperor Augustus trying to find an heir to his throne. His wife, Livia, plots to make her son, Tiberius, emperor. This plotting, scheming, killing and double-crossing continue for many years, through many emperors and throughout Claudius’s own rule.

Claudius had a limp, a stammer and nervous ticks that his family thought was embarrassing. The Julio-Claudians, Claudius’s family, kept him out of public life until his sudden coronation at the age of 49.  The family assumes he is an idiot and Claudius uses this to help him survive in a murderous empire.

The cast and crew of I. Claudius won many awards for the series. Derek Jacobi and Sian Phillips won Best Actor and Best Actress at the 1977 BAFTA Awards. Tim Harvey won a BAFTA and a Emmy for Art Direction and I. Claudius holds the 12^th spot in the 100 Great British Television Programmes release by the British Film Institute. Entertainment Weekly puts the series in the Top Ten Best miniseries on DVD. It is also listed in TIME Magazine as of the “100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME”

After I, Claudius aired, a wide array of large-scale historical dramas started popping up.  This idea spread to comedy. The most notable of these is Blackadder.

DVDs and videos of the series include the 1965 BBC documentary The Epic That Never Was, about the attempted Alexander Korda.

But Serling was more than just a narrator and a handsome face. He actually created and produced the popular science fiction series, which began a five year run in the late 1950s.

Serling’s life began in Syracuse, New York, on December 25, 1924, as the second child of Esther and Samuel Serling. He grew up in Binghamton, in a working-class family that encouraged his gift of gab and love of entertainment. As a young Jewish boy, he was anxious to engage in combat against the Germans during World War II, but after enlisting in the U.S. Army out of high school, he was sent instead to fight the Japanese in the Philippines.

It was soon after his discharge from the war that he entered Antioch College and became involved with the college radio station. It was a perfect fit and was instrumental in honing his writing and directing skills. He met his future wife, Carolyn Kramer, at college, and they married and had two daughters.

Serling’s career took off after a television script, which he had written, won an award. That ego boost led him to write a radio show. His first successful radio series was the Adventure Express, a series that revolved around two children and their train adventure.

In 1955, Serling’s first big break occurred when his teleplay Patterns,  a story about the lack of corporate morality, was shown on Kraft Television Theatre, and received rave reviews. In fact, it was so popular that for the first time in television history, the show aired for a second time.

Three years later, CBS aired what was intended to be the pilot for the Twilight Zone, on The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. The pilot, titled The Time Element, was such a hit that Serling was given the go ahead for the series that made him famous.

In his short 50-year life, Serling received six Emmy Awards for his writing, and a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Producer/Director for The Twilight Zone. He was also the recipient of a star on the Walk of Fame, which resides at 6840 Hollywood Blvd.

(Image via britannica)

Don is a kind of Everyman that Walt and Jesse can never be. Their situations are extreme, beyond the ken of most viewers. Don Draper is the guy we see every morning on the bus or on the train heading to an office in a suit and tie. The comic strip character Pogo famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We viewers of Mad Men have met Don Draper, and he is us — or he could be us without much of a stretch. We feel it in our bones. He creeps into those dark corners in the locked rooms of our psyches we try to convince ourselves are not there.

He works at a soulless job as an ad man on Madison Avenue, where he essentially lies for a living. He’s married to the most beautiful woman in his time zone and isn’t happy with her. Although the condition was undiagnosed in the early 1960s, when Don’s story is set, we know from our perspective that he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his harrowing experiences in the Korean War. He switched identities with a dead soldier to escape from the physical battlefield only to encounter an even more devastating mental one. He can never again use his real name. Hence he is estranged from his real family — the brother he did encounter committed suicide shortly after their meeting. His moral compass has been compromised, rendered askew as if by ever expanding ripples beyond his control, even though he himself threw the rock into the slimy water that produced those ripples. Don Draper is a walking, talking definition of alienation. Like Camus’ Meursault, he is a stranger to all, even to himself.

In many epic stories about a personal journey, the protagonist must voyage to the “underworld,” as Odysseus did in The Odyssey, to learn something substantial about himself that will help him reach his goal. Don’s business trip to Los Angeles in season two was such a journey. There was even a “Siren scene” at a hotel pool. Odysseus had his crew tie him to the mast of his ship so he could unplug his ears and hear the Sirens singing without being lured to his death. Don has no such crew and is constantly seduced by his own weaknesses. He exited his underworld to return to New York City even more damaged and confused.

Of course we will tune in every Sunday night to see how far Don will sink into his self-made bog of mendacity and infidelity, but we cannot afford to lose hope that he will redeem himself. In many ways, the 1960s shaped the way we are today, and Don Draper is a sojourner to that time who reminds us of that.

(Image via guardian)

The Godfather: A Novel for Television, The Godfather: The Complete Novel For Television or The Godfather Saga is a TV miniseries that combined the first two The Godfather movies into one event. NBC originally aired the miniseries in 1977, in one three hour episode and three two hour episodes.

Reportedly Francis Ford Coppola asked Editor Barry Maklin to create the miniseries to raise money for the drastically over-budget Apocalypse Now. The Miniseries version of The Godfather was placed in chronological order, interweaving the two film together seamlessly. Some of the more offensive parts were cut for the TV version, like the sex, violence and language. The TV version has about 75 more minutes of footage than the two original films.

The Miniseries was criticized widely and did not receive high ratings among viewers.  Most critics said the TV version was clunky and did not flow well. Others said the movies were already long enough there was no need to add in the extra scenes. The video and DVD releases are incomplete with parts cut out for TV airing.

The miniseries begins as the head of a New York Mafia, Don Vito Corleone, oversees his daughter’s wedding. The Don’s son Michael has come home from the war and wants nothing to do with his father’s business. We watch as Don Vito lives his life and manage his business. Some of his employees don’t want to follow the old ways anymore. A rival of the family arrives and starts selling drugs in New York.

This miniseries is a great way to remember The Godfather in all its greatness. I enjoyed both the original movies and the miniseries. However,  I would suggest that you don’t try to watch the entire miniseries in one setting.

Guillaume joined the Karamu Players from Cleveland, Ohio shortly after college and was cast in Broadway’s Free and Easy in 1959. He continued to grace the stage for many years appearing in such shows as Kwamina, Guys and Dolls, The Phantom of the Opera and Purlie! and was nominated for a Tony award for his performance in Guys and Dolls. Guillaume created a controversy when he replaced Michael Crawford as The Phantom of The Opera because he was the first and only black actor, to date, to play the role on Broadway or a national tour.

When the revival of Porky and Bess came around in 1963, Robert Guillaume jumped at the role of Sportin’ Life. During his time on stage, Guillaume also joined the Robert de Cormier Singers and The Pilgrims that release a folk album, Just Arrived.

He also had many guest appearances in TV sitcoms, including Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the Jeffersons. Guillaume then started portraying the role we know him best for, Benson Du Bois, on Soap in 1977. Benson DuBois got his own spin off, in 1979, entitled Benson. There he stayed until 1989 when he moved on to star in The Robert Guillaume Show. He also appeared as a regular on Pacific Station and Sports Night.

On January 14, 1999, Guillaume had a mild stroke on the set of Sports Night. The writers set it up so that Guillaume’s character also had a stroke so he continued in the role for another year. During his career, Guillaume has also lent his voice to a variety of animated characters, including Rafiki from the Lion King.

Guillaume has won two Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Comedy Series in 1979 for Soap, and the other for Outstanding Lead Comedy Actor in 1985 for Benson. He is to this day the only African American actor to win the Lead Comedy Actor Emmy Award and St Louis awarded him a star of the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

A former assistant prop master named Carl Jones has filed a lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court, claiming that he was harassed repeatedly by two of his supervisors and ultimately fired for not participating in “degenerate conduct” with them, including “visits to strip bars, participation in getting drunk, stoned or intoxicated on cocaine, to participate in sexual conduct at the trailer, and other dangerous conduct.”

Jones claims the supervisors would refer to himself and other co-workers as slaves, idiots, racial slurs, homophobic terms, and curse words.  I don’t feel comfortable repeating some of those words involved, but if you wish to see them, you may read them on TMZ’s page.

The assistant prop master also claims these supervisors brought guns on set on occasion and even participated in throwing real knives at a target on set.  These supervisors were apparently drunk on tequila while throwing the cutlery.  He also claims these supervisors would bring girls who were working on set into the props trailer to have sex with them then brag about such conquests in front of Jones.  Jones was also allegedly subjected to sexually harassing speech, including references to Sadism and Masochism topics.

Jones claims he tried to report the activity to one of the co-producers but his words went ignored and ultimately he was “blackballed” from future work on the show.  He’s seeking $1,000,000 in damages, claiming he’s now depressed and even suffered physical injury while on the set.

Universal, who produces House, had no comment on the matter.  If you wish to see the court documents, check them out here.

Hot Movie Releases

The Runaways

Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart as 70s rocker girls? Hell yeah, sign me up. I’m sure this one has more melodrama than it needs, and a tab bit of overacting from Stewart, but I still want to see her rock out as Joan Jett in this one, which is based on Neon Angel, the memoirs written by Cherie Currie, who is played by Fanning in the film. Yup, she’s all grown up, and looking good. Do yourself a favor and check this one out.

Cop Out

Kevin Smith directs the first movie he didn’t write with this piece of work, and the results are about what you expect. Two mismatched cops who must work together to get back a stolen baseball card. Bruce Willis and Tracey Morgan star as the dysfunctional duo, and although it has its moments, Cop Out is nothing like Smith’s earlier films except that it falls back on the toilet humor that he’s known for, which almost makes it seem like he’s trying too hard. Oh wait, he is.

The Losers

Action, betrayal, revenge – The Losers has everything you want in a comic-turned-film movie. When a Special Forces unit is sent to the Bolivia jungle, they get double-crossed and are presumed dead. They use that to their advantage, and go undercover to clear their names, and even the score. Jason Patric, Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, and Jeffrey Dean-Morgan star. I haven’t seen it, and don’t really care to, so you let me know.

TV on DVD

Jersey Shore UNCENSORED Season One

How can you not love a show that has someone named Snooki in it? Apparently a lot of people can’t, but I’m not one of them. While I have no interest whatsoever in Jersey Shore, I realize its appeal, about eight over-the-top young adults and their personal lives, and what attracts people to it. I’m not going to sit here and bash it, because frankly – I don’t have the time. I have a bunion that needs removing, and I’m already five minutes late.

Hewitt plays a mother who starts turning tricks in order to support her injured husband and three small children.  After being caught, she agrees to turn over some of the high profile clients in order to get a better deal.  The question that seems to be burning up the search engines is whether or not this story is based on a true one.

The answer is not as simple as the question.  Yes, The Client List is based on a true story, but only loosely.  The real story apparently took place in Texas.  Cynthia Martinez, a 44 year-old mother, started a “massage parlor” out of her home in order to help support her children.  She was busted for prostitution during a sting operation and then was charged with running the parlor without a license (I guess she actually massaged a few people instead of just “massaging” people).  Martinez denied all charges.  You can check out the full report at the Dallas Morning News, but it seems their site is acting a little funny.

So while both revolve around prostitution and massage parlors, that’s all they really have in common.  Martinez didn’t have a hunky husband to fret over and tried to have a go at this whole thing on her own as opposed to being hired to do what Hewitt was doing.

My heart goes out to Martinez and all women who feel they have no other options left.

Hot Movie Releases

The Bounty Hunter

As much as this movie fails to interest me, I do have to say that arresting your ex-girlfriend does seem like fun. Regardless, Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler do their best impression of Mr. & Mrs. Smith in this, avoiding the bad guys while uncovering a deeper conspiracy, all the while hating one another until the end when…well, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I think you know where I’m going with this.

Chloe

The only reason I have any interest in seeing this at all is because of Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried, two of the hottest women in Hollywood. I doubt Liam Neeson will be his ass-kicking self in this, which is a bit of a downer, but still, seeing him seduced by Seyfried so Moore can find out if he’s being unfaithful should be fun. Hell, I wish someone would try and find out if I’m being unfaithful. I kid, I kid. Seriously though, this new one from Atom Egoyan looks, well…lackluster. That’s all I got to say about that.

TV on DVD

Psych: The Complete Fourth Season

Finally we get to the good stuff. It may be a dysfunctional buddy cop show, but Psych has got the goods when it comes to entertaining viewers through quirkiness. As they face off against a slew of potential suspects that include werewolves, ghosts, a shark, and those they trust, Spencer and Guster remain in good form. I never thought this show would last, but here it is. What can I say? Every once in a while I’m wrong.

It was actually a good thing that I knew nothing about the film. Part of the wonder of it is how the story unfolds without any of the usual expository dialogue or even any visual cues that reveal the kind of movie it is. All you know from the initial scenes is that a college girl living in a dormitory has a problem and that a female friend is determined to help her solve it. You don’t want to know any more than that. Believe me. Learning anything further about the plot will dampen the movie’s impact. Don’t even read the Netflix blurb because it gives too much away.

What I can say without spoiling anything is that a fascinating aspect of this film, from a sociological perspective, is the glimpse it gives us into what life was like in Romania in the 1980s under the totalitarian dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. His government was hellbent on controlling every facet of people’s lives. According to the website everything2.com, “Romanian citizenry was appalled at these policies, but were kept in check by the Securitate, his secret police, who kept almost 15% of the population as paid informants.”

The year 1989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the larger Iron Curtain that had draped Eastern Europe since the end of World War II. Before that fall, life was tainted by a pervasive kind of visceral fear that is rendered — in such a way that we can feel it — by the performances of Laura Vasiliu and Anamaria Marinca as the two friends in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The supporting cast is suitably suspicious, and Cristian Mungiu’s direction visually captures the gray dreariness of the Communist atmosphere that soaks into the very bones of the characters.

I am totally addicted to this show. I understand that sometimes the dialogue might be a little lacking, and the acting could use some work…but I’m still addicted. On tonight’s episode, some of the girls’ ugly secrets come out, complicating the school’s homecoming dance. One girl’s date choice may make her life a little more difficult. And who’s

performing at the dance? 2AM Club…and no, I have no idea who they are.

Warehouse 13 (9:00 p.m. EST, Syfy)

Myka (Joanne Kelly) and Pete (Eddie McClintock) must go to Detroit after a vigilante that at first seems indestructible begins using extraordinary methods to thwart criminals. Elsewhere, Leena (Genelle Williams), Artie (Saul Rubinek), and Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) try to move on from the past while making the warehouse a little less crappy.

Covert Affairs (10:00 p.m. EST, USA)

Tonight is the premiere of this series, and it kicks off with CIA trainee Annie Walker (the cute-as-a-button Piper Perabo) as she received a promotion as a field agent. However, her agency bosses quite possibly have an ulterior motive for the unexpected promotion. A military-intelligence agent who was blinded in the field (Christopher Gorham) gives Annie a hand.

24

1. 24: Minutes- It’s just like 24 except instead of 24 hours, Jack has 24 minutes.

2. 24 Presents: Obstacripple- Jack Bauer has 24 hours to stop a terrorist from blowing up the Statue of Liberty, but he is now completely paralyzed from the neck down and in order to get to the terrorist he has to get through a complicated series of obstacles ranging from a rope bridge to a pit of poisonous snakes to a pit of fire.

3. 24 Men And A Baby- Jack Bauer must face the toughest challenge of his life: raising a kid with 23 other very opinionated men, many of whom are played by Tom Selleck.

4. 24: Bathroom Break- It’s exactly like the regular show 24 except the entire time Jack has to go to the bathroom but he can’t cuz he’s in public and he’s gun shy about using public restrooms.

5. 24: Plus A Shitload of Bees- Jack Bauer has to race against not only time to stop the terrorists, but a humongous swarm of angry Africanized bees that he just can’t seem to shake.

On tonight’s episode, the team does its best to get their hands on a gunman who’s shooting inside a historic arena. The case causes Sam (David Paetkau) to wonder if he should really be on the team or not.

Say Yes to the Dress (9:00 p.m. EST, TLC)

Bride-to-be Catherine is using “Egyptian Barbie” as her fashion inspiration for her wedding. What a weirdo. Meanwhile, soon-to-be bride Kerry has her sights set on a $21,000 Pnina Tornai Gown and bride Jessica tries to find a dress that will compliment her fairy wings. Where do people come up with this stuff?

The Hills: From the Beginning (10:00 p.m. EST, MTV)

As the iconic reality series gets closer to its conclusion, we all get a chance to watch a recap of the show. Watch Lauren Conrad’s journey from Laguna Beach to Los Angeles, and relive all of the stand-out moments from the show, including Audrina’s rocky path to finding love, Heidi’s creepy plastic surgery transformation, and Kristin’s arrival to The Hills.

Dual Survival (10:00 p.m. EST, DSC)

On tonight’s episode, follow the hosts as they play out a lost-hiker scenario in the thick jungles of Laos. And what do they have with them? Backpackers’ supplies including condoms, a camera, and cigarettes. How will they get out of this one?

Think about it, how many more risks would networks be willing to take if they didn’t feel obligated to commit to 22 and 25 episode orders?  That gets expensive.  Between crew, expendables, locations etc., the bill can skyrocket.  But what if we cut that in half?  At a cheaper price tag maybe Dollhouse (shrunk even further to 8 episodes?) gets three or four seasons or maybe your favorite sitcom doesn’t jump the shark when it runs out of ideas in season five!  It is time for American TV to accept the idea of addition by subtraction.

There is resolution in shorter seasons.  The creators are forced to focus on story and character development free of the burden of time filling.  We could drive TV away from being content surrounding commercials and back to eventful narratives.

Here’s what I propose; 13 episode seasons.  Unlucky?  Don’t be ridiculous, it’s the perfect number!  You toss in three or four repeats (depending on the weeks in a month) and you get four month seasons.  That means networks could have three seasons per year!  That’s perfection.

Networks are already inundating us with summer schedules, often filled with mediocre game shows and overworked reality TV concepts. So why not use your Fall/Spring savings to woo audiences with original programming instead?  Syfy airs Eureka, USA Burn Notice, and both do quite well.  Audiences are there, and even if they can afford a lengthy summer vacation, their DVRs will be home ready to soak up all the nets have to offer.

HBO has been doing this for years.  Do you hear anyone argue about the brilliance of True Blood or Deadwood?  Have you ever heard anyone say, “gee that season went by quick?”  No, because it was enough, it left your thirst quenched.  The Sopranos aired 13 per season, with the final season of 21 being split into 12 and nine.  Why that wasn’t considered two seasons though is beyond me.

And it’s not just pay cable that has figured out less is more, the BBC has been doing it practically always.  The Office, Gavin and Stacey, Doctor Who, Fawlty Towers, Spaced, Father Ted, Keeping Up Appearances, the list goes on and on and on.  No one complains because all it means is more great shows are on the way every couple months.

The Brits aren’t the only ones with shorter seasons.  The practice is pretty much the accepted norm everywhere else.  I was in a Japanese pop band in college.  Yes, I will repeat that.  I was in a Japanese pop band in college.  Only our singer was Japanese and we would sit around and watch Japanese shows with her on weekends and I saw some terrific shows that ran 12 to 14 episodes and that was it. It was rare to see them ever return, they just kept churning out new stories and new shows, but it worked because each one was crafted with care and left viewers satisfied.  By the by, if there’s anyone out there with copies of Age 35, I’ll pay cash!

Not convinced yet? Let’s look at fan favorite Lost.  The first season rocked the television world, creating a rabid fan base.  The third season had more complaints than Toyota accelerator pedals.  The show ended with 121 episodes, averaging 20 a season over six seasons.  So here’s a thought, what if season three vanished to a different island, one without a camera crew and a national TV audience? I mean, it was mediocre at best, no?  Subtract those 20 mediocre episodes, take the remaining 100 and divide them over six seasons and you get 16 or 17 episode seasons.  A lot closer to my proposed 13 and presumably tighter and more compelling story telling.

Now of course all of these thoughts are predicated on showrunners and writers committing themselves to scripting and planning a series and its seasons to take advantage of the shorter time frame.  It also asks that they are committed more to quality than check cashing quantity which could be difficult being as home prices in Southern California are the real estate equivalent of a $10 baseball stadium hot dog.  But we can dream can’t we?

Come on networks!  Drop the bottom line, back end profit BS you’ve been living by for decades and let’s shake things up.  There’s no business like short business!

TV heroes have certainly changed since the days of C.H.I.P.S. and the A-Team, where everyone on the show would go out of their way not to actually hurt anybody. If Timothy Olyphant had been on the A-Team they wouldn’t have been able to afford a van because they would have had to spend all their money on body bags.

I caught up with Timothy Olyphant at a Starbucks in Los Angeles and asked him about his craft, and how he prepares for a role, and in response he shot me at the base of the spine and then made fun of me for crapping myself while I laid there dying. Then he grabbed the girl working behind the counter by her tie and made out with her and when she asked him his name he told her to “Shut Up” and then threw boiling coffee at a guy who was staring at him and then left without a second look back at the chaos he had caused.

God Timothy Olyphant, you’re so cool.