THROWBACK TV THURSDAY: DEXTER on SHOWTIME

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In the spirit of watching Hannibal on NBC, I had strange inclination to watch Dexter again. Created by James Manos Jr., he developed, produced and wrote the pilot for the Showtime drama series, which just recently came out saying this is the eighth and final season starting this June instead of waiting usually by late September.

What sets the show apart from any show on the air is the fact that it’s about a serial killer, Dexter Morgan (played by Michael C. Hall) who is in a way a good serial killer with a code he lives by to make sure he only kills people who are guilty of malicious crimes and murders before taking them off the streets of Miami. Being a serial killer by night doesn’t pay the bills so by day, Dexter is a blood splatter analysis for the Miami Metro Police Department. Kinda of a reverse Superman, don’t ya think? Blood splatter analyst by day, super serial killer by night.

What I love about Dexter is their simple and clean-cut cinematography (along with their fabulous cast) and how well it incorporates the attitude of the show. The most important factor is the voice over, without it we wouldn’t be able to understand why Dexter Morgan is the way he is, because as it turns out he, himself isn’t too sure about how he is the way he is so its an impactful journey the audience and Dexter embark on together. Through his voice over in the pilot we understand he was born without ‘emotions’ in a way and fakes them (just the way we fake them in our day to day as well) so already the audience is connecting and siding with this damaged man. We are given the chance to be inside Dexter’s head and go along with him because as much as we question him he questions himself, it’s a very interesting relationship and without it the show would be lost. The voice over also allows for some jokes and commentary about regular people’s social behaviors and how they interact with Dexter.

A cinematic choice that I saw in Hannibal but used in Dexter in entirely different ways is the slow motion effect. In Hannibal it’s used to show the slow decent of a dying victim while in Dexter the slow motion usually happens over a social behavior or something that Dexter wants to direct importance to. Such as flirting cues from a police officer or the slow turn from an angry employee or even the slow motion of gazing at a crime scene in awe. In these slow motion examples it is always seen through the eyes of Dexter and we are 99% in his perspective for most of the show. The only time we are not in his perspective is when we are the victims on his table, which is scary and thrilling because we get to experience the last moments of a truly evil person underneath Dexter’s grasp.  Other than that it seems like the camera is always in front of Dexter since we are following him in his perspective.

Then there is truly easy symbolic cinematography I can’t leave out, which is the nature of shadow and how when Dexter is first introduced in the show he is perceived in profile driving along the busy downtown Miami streets. How then we just see his eyes in the rearview mirror, very haunting images with a man we barely know (but will come to accept and love) with his soft, calm, monotone that portrays his lack of connection with the world around him. Even his clothes when he is in serial killer mode are dark thermals and cargo pants. But when he is in ‘Normal Mode’ he wears light breezy pastel colors on the blood splatter job, especially in Miami you need to keep cool outside. He is also always seen for the most part on the same eye level or in the same frame as his coworkers at Miami Metro or his sister (and also a police officer) Debra Morgan (played by Jennifer Carpenter). The only people he doesn’t share the frame with and is usually on different eye levels with are his victims and people he dislikes or dislikes him. When he is our Serial Killer Dexter he is always seen in from a low camera angle, an authoritative mode, like a puppeteer lingering his puppets on their strings of life until he cuts them cleanly off. The victims are usually below him and we only see them close up when they are on the table or from Dexter’s above angle perspective. When people dislike or mistrust Dexter (like a certain Sgt. James Doakes played by Erik King), Dexter is below the eye level of Doakes, which shows Doakes is the more authoritative one and someone we should watch out for since we want Dexter to keep doing what he is doing, which is making Miami safe.

Overall, I’m very sad to see this show go but each season tackles another feat Dexter doesn’t think he can handle based off his ‘Dark Passenger’. Which can be anything from dating, keeping his two jobs from colliding under the Miami Metro Police Force, a nosy sister, religion even being a father/good role model for people. So each season will keep you wanting to know more and see how far can Dexter go without people finding out his dark secret and just try to be a normal, sociable human being on top of it all. If you have Showtime I suggest you take a watch, you will not be disappointed.

TV TUESDAY: HANNIBAL

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This new NBC show brings crime drama to a whole new level. Not only do we have an unconventional, socially inapt FBI criminal profiler and teacher at the FBI academy Will Graham (Hugh Dancy). We have the roots of Dr. Hannibal Lecter played by Mads Mikkelsen, the psychiatrist who is rarely expressive yet still manages to have an engaging relationships with his patients. However, the Doctor is not introduced until nearly the last half of the pilot. In this critique I don’t want to give away spoilers but I really want people to understand the relationships of the two main characters and the overall cinematographic picture of the show from my review. The content of the crime drama is fascinating and doesn’t disappoint. However, I need to touch on the opening on this show and how it’s effects and perspective of a crime scene will have you hooked onto Will Graham and this series in a heartbeat.

We spend the first minutes of the show looking at a crime scene like an police officer, the slanted angle of a dead women below us, blood splatter on the walls and Will Graham just standing in the middle of all the police and chaos with a stoic, eerily calm look on his face. We then are stripped of all sound and with a yellow laser effect we have the whole room wiped clean, police, victims, etc. In a slow motion effect to show the reversal of time Will walks backwards out of the room until he is standing in front of the house in the past, moments before the murders take place. When he is finished backing up he charges into the house and reenacts the murders as he has now jumped into the role of the murderer. The craziest thing is we see through his eyes how this murderer did his deed but while he is ‘killing’ the victim is set into slow motion as Will, in normal speed talks about how the person died using the first person. Ex: ‘I shoot the man in the head, causing him to die instantly, this is my design.’ We know he isn’t the killer but we gather the killer’s perspective through the criminal profiler.

After watching that scene I was instantly hooked on the show because I truly liked how Will took on the killer’s perspective to look for clues on how possibly the killer could have fudged up the crime scene. What is special about Will is that he knows he’s not the technical term for ‘normal’ and even says he’s more on the “Asperger’s (a form of Autism), narcissistic and sociopath kind of sociable. However he is amazing at his job because he can empathize with serial killers, which scares him and thrills him at the same time. Now my critique over his character, I think Will Graham is an amazing new character that we haven’t really explored in prime time. We saw this with MONK on USA network, a neurotic former police officer and Will is a socially awkward former police officer as well. Yet Will is compassionate, he rescues dogs and that’s his form of ‘family’. So girls can easily identify him as the Cute and Complicated guy they can follow.

Each week there is a serial killer that is the main focus of the show, the first week is about girls that go missing and are impaled by antlers, as if to bleed them out. Yet one special victim is put back into her bed after her death, Will says the killer was being sympathetic because she had liver cancer and the meat was bad. We cut to a man delicately cutting a sliver of meat and bringing it to his mouth, and we are starring at the darken face of the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter. From then on we escape the crime scene for a few more minutes and divulge into Dr. Lecter’s life. We see a blurred image of a man reaching out his hand and pleading, we think it’s a victim. But when we pull out we see the wide shot of the profile of Dr. Lecter handing a tissue to a patient.

The art designer knew what they were doing when they made Dr. Lecter’s office bleak and more like a study/private library then a psychiatric office. It’s dark walls and covered windows makes you feel you are suffering even if you aren’t a patient. Dr. Lecter is usually shown in partial shadow with his slicked back perfect hair and gray toned suits that essentially ‘tone down’ are already cool and calm demeanor. Graham on the other hand has untamed curly hair and has the lighter tones of the wardrobe, showing his youth as well as his personality.  However as you watch the relationship between Graham and Dr. Lecter grow (it’s already only as of tomorrow, three episodes in the series) and they have already experienced running in on a killer, death, a breakfast meal together and psychiatric sessions.

Their relationship is something that will really steals the show because as of now we don’t know that Dr. Lecter is another serial killer that Graham and the FBI is chasing down but watching two men have that interest in serial killers and how they are criminally profiled is enticing to watch, especially from the audience’s perspective of ‘I know something you don’t know’.

Throwback TV Thursday: The West Wing

           

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I fell in love with this show easily after watching a few episodes in my editing class in college. The cinematography sold me on the show, the continuous long shot throughout the West Wing showing the chaos and constant flow of our government and how the news (and our nation’s capital) never sleeps.  You could be walking with Press Secretary C. J. Cregg (Allison Janney) down one hallway and she will bump into Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) have a quick chat and then the camera while never cutting away, follows now Josh who goes off to present the news to the next character. I believe this long continuous shot helped the audience adjust to the fast pace environment of the White House without ever losing their surroundings and the people focused in on the dialogue for that moment. Its fluid movement helps the audience to never lose focus and be able to grasp what’s happening without constant cuts that would make our heads spin.

The fast and quick dialogue adds to the pressure and the constant movement of each issue the West Wing Staff has to deal with not only from outside forces but between each other as well. When the more hard hitting moments were presented on screen an extreme close up of the profile of the character affected is held in the frame and mostly with a dark shadow representing the dark news ahead. One of my favorite shots is the circling around the room of people, whether it’s the staffers or an extremist group, it binds the audience in with the characters and we feel we are a part of the next major issue of the White House Staffers. It sometimes comes off as a ‘victory lap’ around the characters or a slow, long circle that seems to ooze bad news.

           

Like I said, I love the cinematography of this show and can dissect it all day.

           

The show ran for seven seasons from 1999-2006, which of course in our own nation’s history has had some pretty horrific moments not only from forces of nature (Hurricane Katrina) but of course the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Aaron Sorkin, the creator and writer for 155 episodes of The West Wing never took an actual headline from the news between 1999-2006, but reflected the tensions in the Middle East often in the series. He also covered national disasters by Nature (tornados) and the more nitty gritty issues even our government is trying to handle today like recession, education, tax reforms, and minimum wage and the constant battle to get anything done in Congress and Senate.

I’m not a political person but watching President Josiah ‘Jed’ Bartlett (played by Martin Sheen) as the Democratic president for two terms of the United States was fascinating. He showed not only the horribly difficult decisions a president has to make like sending American soldiers into the arms of danger but also the light hearted side of being a father and a husband, and gives off the father figure type of attitude towards his staff when he is not in a bad mood. This show also tackles issues we haven’t really seen in the office yet like drugs and alcohol addiction by certain members of Congress and White House Staff, higher ups battling diseases and sometimes PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I deeply enjoyed this show and I suggest anyone who can access this show (all seven seasons are on Netflix) will enjoy the feeling they are behind the scenes of the White House and it’s staff.

            

TV TUESDAYS: HOUSE OF CARDS

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House of Cards really shined when it comes to it being an original Netflix series. It’s main component to me was having a star like Kevin Spacy play the role of the rich, powerful, manipulative but not necessarily evil Congressman Frank Underwood but also having an accomplished director for the first two episodes, David Fincher. David is known for his dark and stylish thrillers (according to Wikipedia) with his movies Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room to more recently, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He made this world of sex; lies, greed, power and politics come to life in a way the viewers have never seen before, through interaction. There are moments where Frank Underwood breaks the forth wall and talks directly into the camera explaining to the audience who’s who of Washington D.C. (especially in the Capital) and once a plan of his goes awry he comes right back to the camera and explains how he is going to get what he wants, through whatever means necessary.

It’s a very different style of film and I truly enjoyed it. I never found myself more intrigued with the political world and how we can see manipulations forming and all the lies within lies to tell this power-hungry story not only from Frank (even though we get his perspective) but from other people as well. We also get to follow a young, poor, struggling for fame, happiness and respect reporter at the Washington Herald named Zoe Barnes (played by Kate Mara). She’s the link to politics because she gets to write about them, which shows the vicious cycle of the news and how fast things can change the politician game just because of a rumor published.

Cinematography wise, it’s a beautifully shot and well executed in styles and theme and structure. Because of Frank’s personal shots with the camera and relaying what’s going on to the audience we get some very beautiful and subtle close ups to show his moments of victory and defeat (along with other characters, this is a reoccurring theme) and then wide framed shots to show moments of pure power and victory. No matter which character you are being focused on the set up of the shot shows the intent of what is going on in the scene and the effect it will have on the character(s).

Even if you are not the most political minded person you will be spellbound to the charm and stylish dark themes of this show and will easily watch the full thirteen episodes within a week.

Olympus Has Fallen: Terror Has Risen

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Olympus Has Fallen crushed my hopes for a patriotic, spirit lifting film of the Good Ole USA fighting terrorism on the one place we Americans fear the most as a terrorist group target, which is Washington D.C., more specifically the White House. The backstory before the bloodshed on Washington is Mike Banning of the Secret Service (played by Gerard Butler) is President Benjamin Asher’s (Aaron Echkart) right hand man, who not only helps out the President’s wife time to time but also is best friends with their son, Connor (Finley Jacobsen). In a tragic moment where Mike is clearly abiding by the code, “To protect the President” the President is forever haunted by the memory and anything associated with Mike Banning.

Eighteen months later after the tragedy, it’s July 5^th and jumping to the basis of the movie, a string of chaotic and horrific events take over the Washington D.C. area and we find the strongest hold of our government and people under attack. Within the first thirty five minutes there is nothing but blood and mass murder, enough to make me have my jaw dropped and in near tears as I did when I was in sixth grade on September 11^th 2001. The havoc that was created for this movie was all too realistic and quite horrifying that any act of terror is a possibility and stirs the fears in my mind that this could happen at our nation’s capital. As if to make the audience more attached to the Washington D.C. area, not only as us being American citizens but the beautiful wide shots of the famous monuments and White House lawn and bustling streets full of politicians and lobbyists and the occasional tourist. Those sweeping and large shots allow the audience to make the connection on how important these places are in our history and our character as a nation. It made me patriotic and even more devastated at the destruction left in its wake after the terrorists’ plan went into effect.

The only ‘hope’ and person keeping the story together (and fast enough to escape every bullet and suicide bomber in his way) is none other than Mike Banning, who’s job is to not only save the kidnapped president but his son Connor as well before he is grabbed as well. The interior shots of Mike Banning doing the bidding of the acting president, Speaker Trumbull played by Morgan Freeman is always full of darkness and danger. We get many close up shots of Gerard Butler making his way through the tight dark White House once it’s taken over and with some witty banter and jokes to chuckle at so you are relieved there is a man who is physically and mentally competent to do this task and be able to joke even in the situation he is in. With the backstory you can see the relationship between the President and Mike and how Mike would literally do anything for him and his family, even if it means dying for them.

Overall, this story made me so sad and startled and I didn’t think there was any sort of good ending to come from it, and director Antoine Fuqua and writers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt barely managed to do it. I give this movie a six out of ten, and I hope people can find the patriotic qualities like I did to make this movie easier to process but overall the storyline and gore made it hard for me to really enjoy and appreciate the film, even with the epic hero and hottie, Gerard Butler saving America.