Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece, by Susannah Fullerton

Approximately five years ago, I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as well as her other five novels after receiving an all-in-one collection as a gift. Having only truly read Pride and Prejudice once (I can’t count the Cliff Notes I used in high school), it’s a wonder that I am reviewing this festive micro-history which delightfully illustrates why Jane Austen’s perfect Regency romance has remained so untouchable since its publication in 1813, even as her style and subject matter are profusely imitated, now more than ever!  

Reading Susannah Fullerton’s pleasant homage to the timeless novel upon its 200-year anniversary provided me with all sorts of intriguing details, historical background, and gossipy tidbits about its creation and legacy that enhance my appreciation of the novel.  Fullerton, president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, effectively demonstrates the reasons for the novel’s perfection and its ever-increasing appeal for readers of either sex, of all ages, in nearly every community worldwide. She cheerfully describes her analysis of individual characters, Austen’s style, and the famous opening sentence on which an entire chapter is devoted.

It was especially amusing to learn of all the various editions, versions, translations, sequels, retellings, mash-ups, adaptations, film interpretations, and other assorted Austen-inspired endeavors that have fueled a sort of Pride-and-Prejudice mania. Darcy-mania culture took off on the tails of the sexy 1995 BBC film version, starring Colin Firth (of the infamous lake scene), and kindled much new interest in the reading of the novel.

Fullerton pretty much concludes that no sequel author or film producer has ever really matched Jane Austen’s masterful style and that what lovers of the novel should really ever do is just keep reading and re-reading Pride and Prejudice. I agree that the masterpiece stands alone, but Austen did very effectively infect most of her readers with a desire to continue knowing Elizabeth and Darcy and to learn ever more about each well-drawn character’s future. Imagine if she’d lived long enough to write her own sequels, or to taste the fame her novels eventually gave her!

Check the WRL catalog for Celebrating Pride and Prejudice : 200 years of Jane Austen’s Masterpiece

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Miracle Planet

I imagined it differently. I pictured a warm shallow pool under a friendly blue sky, overseen by a kindly shining sun and gently stirred by a breeze. And in the pool, my far distant slime-mold ancestors were busily evolving into my grandfather. Miracle Planet shows a past that is far more savage and chaotic than my imaginings.

Miracle Planet is a five-part documentary made by a joint Canadian and Japanese team. The first two parts, “The Violent Past” and “Snowball Earth” assert that in the far distant past the entire earth was frozen solid two miles deep all the way to the equator, probably twice. The friendly blue sky that I imagined was, at some points, actually red from the high concentration of methane and then dark from debris from massive volcanic eruptions. And a meteor hit the earth millions of years before the well-known one causing the dinosaur extinction and made the planet so hot that the rocks boiled and melted miles deep. The documentary explains the timing of these events, which were millions of years apart, but I find geologic time hard to keep track of, since the time spans are so unimaginably huge.

But the most amazing part of the documentary (and perhaps the most amazing thing ever) is that life persisted! Scientists used to think that the freezing and boiling catastrophes sterilized the earth and destroyed all life on earth. Then they thought life evolved again.  But now they think that bacteria could have survived, because they know bacteria survive miles deep in diamond mines in South Africa.

I learned many other things such as the greatest volcanic eruption ever in the history of the earth occurred in what is now Siberia and made ninety-five percent of the existing species extinct. Also that dinosaurs were very bird-like, in that they were better at oxygen exchange than the early mammals because they had air sacs. The series moves up in time to early humans.

I came across this series when I created a display on “The End of the World” and it will fascinate buffs of apocalyptic scenarios. Even if I can accept my personal mortality (and less readily the mortality of my loved ones), the extinction of our species is still horrible to contemplate, let alone the extinction of all life on earth.

Miracle Planet has wonderful images and graphics and I also recommend it for those interested in science. The library owns a lot of great science documentaries and I love them because, at their best, they bring an immediacy to a subject that a book can lack, because sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Check the WRL catalog for Miracle Planet.

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Flambards

With the popularity of British TV series like Downton Abbey, I think it is time to draw attention to a wonderful television series from 1973, Flambards.  It is set in the period from 1910 through World War I, and it includes many of the same issues of the changing relationships between the British ruling class and the people they felt they ruled over.

Christina is a teenage orphan who is passed around from elderly aunt to elderly aunt living in genteel but shabby conditions until Uncle Russell calls for her to be brought to  Flambards, the family’s crumbling ancestral home.  Christina is a child of her times, who obeys unquestioningly and misses all the deeper family currents.  She has been sent to Flambards because she is an heiress who will come into her fortune when she turns 21.  Uncle Russell requires her fortune to save Flambards which is crumbling into disrepair as he has spent all his money, time, and energy on fox-hunting.  In Uncle Russell’s mind the logical solution is for Christina to marry his eldest son, Mark, who is also her first cousin, and they will spend her fortune to save Flambards.

Uncle Russell is obsessed with fox hunting, even though he is confined to a chair and in constant pain after a hunting accident.  He lives through his sons as they hunt, which is fine for Mark who is only interested in hunting, drinking, and girls. His brother, Will, hates hunting.  Will is an intelligent, sensitive boy who wants to learn to fly in the new airplanes that are being developed.  Christina spends time with both her cousins, but Will is easier to get along with and she enjoys talking to him about planes.  The interest of the handsome groom, Dick, adds to the romantic tension, while the increasing drunken brutishness of Uncle Russell raises the drama.

Flambards is based on the series of novels by K.M. Peyton, which started with Flambards published in 1967, then went on to The Edge of the Cloud (1969), Flambards in Summer (1969), although the TV series doesn’t cover Flambards Divided (1981).  Our library doesn’t currently own the books although they are still in print.  As usual in comparisons between the screen version and the book, the books have more depth and background, but they cannot provide the  the gorgeous scenery, the galloping horses, and the wondrous early planes.

As I already said, Flambards is a good choice for fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, but also I recommend it for lovers of romance and horses.  Oddly for a historical romance, I also recommend it for aviation fans.  Early planes like the Bleriot are integral to the plot of the story so the series creators made and flew radio controlled model working replicas of these early planes.  I actually thought that they made full-size planes until I researched it for this blog post, so they did a good job of hiding the planes’ size.  Either way, their flimsy, splindliness and air of imminent disaster is fascinating!

Flambards also has wonderful music, written by David Fanshawe.  As I am typing this I have the whistling refrain from the credits going through my head, and I’m anticipating spending some quality girl-time re-watching some of my favorite episodes.

Check the WRL catalog for Flambards

 

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Doctor Who

I am taking another risk this week and recommending one of my favorite TV series. But I am finding that Doctor Who is more difficult to write about than The Pinhoe Egg. How do I even attempt to distill the world’s longest running science fiction TV series into a single blog post? *

Doctor Who has everything you expect from a sci-fi series: aliens, spaceships, monsters, distant planets, distant times and, of course, chases and explosions. Unusual from other sci-fi series I have seen, I care deeply about the characters and their lives. The Doctor is a nine-hundred year old, two-hearted, human look-alike alien who is nearly indestructible. He travels around in a retro wooden blue police box time machine, “the TARDIS – a Time and Relative Dimensions In Space” machine, with one or two young and good-looking companions, saving the universe from evil of all sorts. Despite his power The Doctor likes humanity and some humans in particular. He likes us for the same reason I like humanity – for our capacity for love, laughter, and compassion.  He has seen us from our start in caves to our distant future as the universe is ending. Like a good parent he accepts our failings and challenges us to improve. Perhaps his character is best summed up by a quote from the 2010 Christmas Special, “In nine hundred years I have not met anyone who wasn’t important.”

If your spaceship can travel through both time and space you can go anywhere, anytime, and see anything. And The doctor does. Sometimes he goes to strange worlds with strange aliens but often the setting is a near contemporary earth. Doctor Who is unashamedly British, getting in a few jabs at Americans. It visits many British cultural icons in varying episodes that focus on Dickens, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, the Blitz in London during World War II, Winston Churchill, and Agatha Christie.

Doctor Who aired its first episode in 1963 in a black-and-white series with clunky props and a much slower storyline.  It was taken off the air in 1989 and then it was revived in 2005 in a season packaged misleadingly as The Complete First Series. The stories have improved, special effects have improved, even the monsters have improved. The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors over the years, a dramatic convenience explained away by The Doctor regenerating if he is killed. Each actor manages to add dimensions to his character, so I am not sure who is my favorite.

Although the monsters may be too scary for small children, Doctor Who can be enjoyed by most of the family. There is no sex (attraction is sometimes implied), no gory violence, lots of suspenseful action but the good guys ultimately win. As the actor David Tenant said in his portrayal of the tenth Doctor, “Defending the earth. Can’t argue with that.”

*Although some will argue that because Doctor Who wasn’t running from 1989 to 2004 that Star Trek wins the longevity prize.

Check the WRL catalog for Doctor Who

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North & South

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of wits and good sense must be in want of a Darcy (or to be more accurate, Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride & Prejudice). But there are only so many Darcys (and library copies of Pride & Prejudice) to go round. So, if you’ve watched this BBC miniseries so often you can recite it line for line and are looking for something new, I recommend North & South.

North & South can best be described as a Victorian Pride & Prejudice, but the central romance is laced with powerful and interesting social commentary. Based on the 1855 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, it tells the story of Margaret Hale, the daughter of a middle-class vicar, who, used to a privileged, slower pace of life in rural southern England, is suddenly uprooted when her father suffers a crisis of faith and gives up his livelihood. He moves his family to a dreary, smoky northern mill town trying to find its feet as the industrial revolution marches onward, but Margaret cannot see beyond the noise, the smell, the dirt, and the conflict between “masters and men.” When she meets the handsome, charismatic mill-owner, John Thornton, North and South collide.

Margaret struggles to come to terms with her new home and feels nothing but contempt for the greedy, ambitious mill-owners, including Thornton, who is one of her father’s new students. Thornton is instantly attracted to the strong-willed and outspoken Margaret, but she is unable to hide her repulsion and disdain for his work and the way she mistakenly believes he treats his employees. Gradually, Margaret’s attitude towards the town and its inhabitants changes, as she becomes friends with the mill-workers, including a local union leader and his daughter. But as Margaret becomes more invested in their lives, the strife between the mill-owners and their workers culminates in a crippling strike, the consequences of which affect every member of the town. Even as Margaret’s opinion of the town and her new life changes, she remains stubbornly prejudiced against mill-owners, and one in particular. Like Lizzy Bennett, it is only later, when the strike and the events that follow threaten to keep the two apart, that Margaret finally begins to recognize the integrity, strength of character, and value of the man she has rejected.

North & South stars Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale and Richard Armitage as the brooding hero, John Thornton. It also stars Brendan Coyle (currently onscreen as the self-sacrificing Mr. Bates in Downton Abbey) as the union leader, Nicholas Higgins. The screenplay was written by Sandy Welch, who also wrote the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre (with Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens) and the 2009 version of Emma (with Romola Garai).

Anglophiles and fans of high-quality BBC period drama, such as Downton Abbey, will fall in love with North & South. Like any good costume drama, it is full of simmering passion and smoldering sexual tension, where one glance, one touch, can carry the weight of a thousand words.

Check the WRL catalog for North & South.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000

Besides director David Lynch’s 1990-91 series Twin Peaks, my favorite television show is Mystery Science Theater 3000. Although the series was canceled in 1999, fans and newcomers  can still enjoy the show thanks to periodic DVD releases, and WRL has several sets as well as individual episodes in its collection.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (often abbreviated as MST3K) ran from 1988-1999, first on the Minnesota-based station KTMA, then on Comedy Central and the Sci Fi Channel. Two mad scientists, Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) and Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Josh Weinstein), aspire to take over the world by means of bad movies. They launch an unassuming man named Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson) into space and force him to watch B-movies so they can determine which B-movie to use in their scheme for world domination. Joel builds four robots (Gypsy, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, and Cambot) to help him on the ship and to assist him in watching the movies. Each episode begins with an intro that sets the theme of the episode, then Joel and two of the robots watch and comment on the episode’s featured B-movie. Each episode is roughly two hours, and one movie is featured per episode, although occasionally short films are included as well.

When I first heard about MST3K and its premise, I didn’t think I’d like it, but once I gave it a chance, I was hooked. The writing is clever and inventive. Everything about the movies featured on the show– the opening/closing credits, the music, the acting– is fair game for jokes. The comments are incisive and extremely funny. There are breaks throughout each episode in which the host and the mad scientists comment further on the movie or perform skits related to the film

There were several cast changes throughout the course of the show, most notably new villains, including TV’s Frank (Frank Conniff) and Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl), and a new host when Joel Hodgson left halfway through the series’s run and was replaced with Michael J. Nelson (playing a character named Mike Nelson).

Because the opening credits of MST3K establish both the premise of the show and the central characters in each episode, newcomers to the show don’t need to start watching from any specific episode. While I’d recommend any of the DVDs in the WRL collection, I am partial to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Volume 4, which features the following movies: Space Mutiny, Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, Girl in Gold Boots, and Hamlet (a badly dubbed version made for German television in the early ‘60s). I happen to like this collection because it offers a good overview of the different types of movies featured over the course of the show’s run.

I think anyone who enjoys B-movies or making fun of B-movies would enjoy the humor of this long-running show.

Check the WRL catalog for Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection 4

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Sherlock (2010)

I feel a little guilty, actually, like I’ve been cheating on Jeremy Brett, but over the course of three 90-minute episodes, I have fallen head over heels for another actor’s Sherlock Holmes. This latest BBC production stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the iconic consulting detective and updates his Edwardian surroundings to modern-day London. (Watson has a blog; Sherlock has a smart phone. He taunts Scotland Yard by text message with the same fervour that Holmes sent telegrams.)

With looks that are alternately angelic and alien and a voice that the Times describes as “like a jaguar hiding in a cello,” Cumberbatch settles into the role of Sherlock Holmes like he was born to it. Brilliant and petulant, dangerous when bored, Sherlock depends on the puzzling and the forensic to distract his high-performance brain from the tedium of daily life.

Fortunately, roommate John Watson is there to remind him that at the other end of his latest delightful puzzle is a terrified human being waiting for rescue. Now, I’ve always had a thing for Holmes, but this is the first time I’ve been quite so smitten with Watson, whose past portrayals have ranged from merely self-effacing to utterly incompetent. Martin Freeman’s Watson, alternately admiring and exasperated, provides exactly the counterpoint, in head shakes and eye rolls, that Sherlock deserves. It’s some kind of feat of acting that Freeman easily holds his own, with the most minute gestures and facial expressions, against Sherlock’s grandstanding dramatics.

Elements of “A Study in Scarlet” and “The Bruce Partington Plans” are just the jumping-off point for these new mysteries, which fly by just slightly faster than the speed of logic. For those who know their Conan Doyle, there are plenty of in-jokes and nifty twists (the identity of Sherlock’s archnemesis, for one). The supporting cast includes Rupert Graves as longsuffering DI Lestrade and Sherlock’s exceedingly swirly, dramatic coat, which all but earns its own line in the credits.

Sherlock was concocted by Doctor Who writers Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and if you’ve watched any New Who, the rapid-fire dialogue and the chemistry between a brilliant eccentric and his loyal companion will seem quite familiar. I wouldn’t have been particularly surprised to see Sherlock pull out a sonic screwdriver along with his magnifying glass, or to find that there were Daleks lurking behind Reichenbach Falls all along.

Check the WRL catalog for Sherlock.

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Regency House Party

 

This week we are delighted to have back folks from the library’s Circulation Services division. This first post comes from Ceilidh Mapes.

Twelve footmen. Seventeen maids. Thirty-two chamber-pots. Twenty suckling pigs. Ten thousand candles. Don’t forget to add a dash of intrigue, a splash of scandal and a generous helping of matchmaking, and what do you get? One Regency house party and one bizarre, but fascinating, social experiment.

Ten eligible young men and women spend nine extravagant, exciting summer weeks in a lavish country house in the heart of England, in an effort to live exactly (or as close as possible in the 21st century) as their counterparts did 200 years ago – and that includes the corsets, the chamber-pots, the elaborate courtship rituals and the chaperones.

Everyone is given a Regency alter-ego with a certain status and fortune attached, which in turn determines their eligibility and desirability in the house. There’s the master of the house, a naval captain, a vicar, a countess, a lady’s companion and an industrial heiress (aka “new money”). And let’s not forget the chaperones – four ladies of mature years, whose job it is to guard their young charges’ virtue ferociously and to help to orchestrate a match between their young lady and the most eligible male they can catch.

But these 21^st century folks soon learn that this match-making business isn’t as easy as it seems, and as genuine feelings and attachments begin to form, the entire situation becomes even more tangled up. They quickly learn that Regency men and women had entirely separate daily routines, and often they only saw each other at dinner in the evening. The men would spend the day hunting, shooting, fishing, boxing, while the ladies were expected to stay inside sewing, trimming bonnets, taking dance lessons, and when all else failed, gossiping. The women, successful independent products of the 21^st century soon find themselves suffocating under the strict social protocols, which would not even let a young lady go down to breakfast alone if her chaperone insisted upon staying in her room. How was a girl supposed to find her Mr. Darcy?

But as soon as the participants begin to grow more comfortable in their Regency roles, new challenges are thrown their way in the form of new arrivals, love triangles and even the odd cat-fight (well, what’s a reality show without a good cat-fight?), and this game of make-believe quickly turns into something much more real. The show is ridiculously funny in parts and touchingly poignant in others. This is an entirely different breed of “reality show” and a must-watch for anyone who has ever read Jane Austen and sighed in longing.

Check the WRL catalog for Regency House Party

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Daria: The Complete Animated Series

WOOHOO! Daria is finally on DVD!

If you’re not familiar with the show, Daria is a cartoon that aired on MTV from 1997 to 2002. Since then, fans (count me as one) have been eagerly awaiting its arrival on DVD. We waited, and waited, and waited. Because of the hundreds of musical snippets from popular artists used throughout the show, MTV had trouble obtaining licensing at a cost that would allow Daria’s DVD publication at a reasonable price. It took them eight long years, but now the cartoon has been released with music written specifically for the show to replace the popular music originally used. Honestly, I’ve forgotten what a lot of the original music was, so the overlaid music doesn’t make the show any less enjoyable for me. I think it actually makes Daria more timeless, for future generations to enjoy without being distracted by music that might be seem dated (even though it’s an inarguable fact that ’90s music was awesome. Just sayin’).

Yes, this is a cartoon, but it’s not meant for children. I absolutely loved this show as a teenager; re-watching it all these years later from an adult perspective, I love it even more. While the Daria character is ripped straight out of MTV’s popular Beavis and Butt-head series, the show’s humor is completely opposite to the immaturity Beavis and Butt-head are known for. Daria’s life is a satire of suburbia, where her pessimism, wit, and sarcasm contrasts with nearly everyone she interacts with. On her first day of school in a new town, Daria is immediately labeled as the brainy, unpopular girl, while her little sister Quinn is identified as the popular, cute girl who girls want to be friends with and boys want to date. And that’s just where this sitcom begins!

WRL now has Daria: The Complete Animated Series on DVD available for your viewing pleasure. If you’ve ever felt like an outcast in school, watch Daria. If you just want a funny cartoon to be entertained by, watch Daria. Finally, if you want to experience a piece of MTV history, when their shows featured intelligent teens making fun of spoiled teens (instead of the other way around), watch Daria.

Check the WRL catalog for Daria: The complete animated series

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Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks was a short-lived television series that ran on NBC from 1999-2000, with a mere 18 episodes.  The show introduced viewers to the Weirs, a typical American family—mom stays at home to raise the two kids, and dad owns a local sporting goods store.  The kids, Lindsay and Sam, are both teenagers attending the same high school.  Sam is a freshman.  He and his friends, Neal and Bill, are the geeks of the show.  Lindsay, a former geek, has just started transitioning to the freak group, becoming friendly with Daniel, Kim, Nick and Ken.

Part comedy and part drama, Freaks and Geeks portrays your typical high school experiences:  Sam is in love with cheerleader Cindy Sanders, who is dating a football player.  Lindsay is interested in Daniel, who’s dating Kim, while Nick finds Lindsay attractive.  Neal, Bill, and Sam are all targets of bullying on a regular basis.  Lindsay and Sam are chronically embarrassed by their “square” parents.  Lindsay’s former geeky BFF, Millie, doesn’t understand why Lindsay has changed and still hangs around trying to resuscitate their friendship, while Lindsay is desperately trying to change her image and fit in with the freaks.  Although the teenage drama sounds cheesy, the show doesn’t portray it that way.  These are “coming of age” storylines with which anyone can identify.

The show’s backdrop of late 1970s culture—the clothes, cars, and music—will send Gen Xers on a trip down memory lane.  One of my favorite episodes, “Tricks and Treats,” has Bill dressed as the Bionic Woman for Halloween.  In the last episode, Nick is found dancing in a disco competition, which earns him endless teasing by the other freaks.

It’s unfortunate that NBC canceled the series after one season.  The show was never able to fully develop the storylines it introduced and viewers were merely given a glimpse into the characters’ lives.  Nevertheless, Freaks and Geeks deserves a chance in everyone’s DVD player.

Check the WRL catalog for Freaks and Geeks

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The List: All Things British

Being something of an Anglophile, I couldn’t resist making a list of great (library circulating) British miscellanea. The list includes books, music, movies, and people that help make England more interesting. I have omitted what some may think of as obvious choices like James Bond (my Bond of choice is Scottish) and the Rolling Stones (you can’t like them if you like The Beatles…it’s a rule) so feel free to comment below and add to my list!

• Monty Python — I’m partial to the movies: Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Meaning of Life.
• The Beatles — The eternal question. Which album is the best? My current faves: Rubber Soul, Revolver, The White Album, and the Anthology.
• Alan Rickman — He’s always great, but some of his best villain work is in Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Check him out being funny in Dogma, being sweet in Sense and Sensibility, and being not so sweet in:
• Harry Potter— Read/watch them in order, but my favorite is Prisoner of Azkaban (movie version).
• Henry VIII and his wives — Watch The Tudors, read The Other Boleyn Girl.
• Neil Gaiman— His juvenile work is getting a lot of press right now, but adults should try the short stories: Fragile Things and Smoke and Mirrors.
• Classic Authors: Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and the Brontës — Romeo and Juliet (movie version), Emma (movie version), Jane Eyre (movie version), Wuthering Heights (movie version).

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Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

There is something a bit meta about blogging about a DVD about blogging, but I’m doing it anyway. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was originally released as a series of three 15 minute webisodes created by Joss Whedon (of Buffy-fame) during the writers’ strike. It has now been released as a DVD and is definitely worth checking out. It features the acting and singing talents of Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, an aspiring super villain. He blogs (and sings) about his efforts to become a member of the Evil League of Evil, his nemesis Captain Hammer, played by Firefly’s Nathan Fillion, and his love for fellow laundromat user Penny.

Dr. Horrible’s current attempt to join the Evil League includes the creation of a Freeze Ray (“It’s not a Death Ray or an Ice Beam, that’s all Johnny Snow”) that will freeze time. When things don’t go quite as planned, word comes down from the Evil League that his application will be denied unless he kills someone.

Dr. Horrible is unbelievably funny, touching, heart-wrenching, and has catchy songs, too. The DVD features a sing-along commentary track and fan-created Evil League of Evil video applications which are, in some cases, just as funny as the blog they were inspired by.  Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from Dr. Horrible’s blog is to be careful what you say on your video blog, since both your nemesis and the police could be watching!

Check the WRL catalog for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

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Phineas and Ferb

“There’s 104 days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it. Like maybe…”

So begins the theme song of the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb. Phineas and Ferb are brothers with a perpetual summer of fun at their fingertips. Phineas is the verbal idea man, devising the most out-of-this-world projects and plans. Ferb is the softspoken man of action who can make it, build it, and bring the plans to life. Their sister, Candace, is on a lifelong mission to “bust her brothers,” which means she wants her parents, specifically her mother, to catch the boys in the act and punish them. Their pet platypus, Perry, has a secret identity as Agent P. His job is to keep the evil Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz from bringing ruin to the Tri-State Area. The family’s parents are blissfully unaware of the goings on inside their home, or more typically, out in the back yard.

You may have guessed that this is meant to be a children’s TV show, but there is humor and enjoyment here for adults as well. As in many Disney productions, jokes are included for the entertainment of adults watching with their children. The animation is well done, and the voice acting is spot-on. Each episode includes a brief musical interlude with an original song written to support the plot. The characters either break into song, or a montage is shown with music to accompany their actions.

Between Phineas and Ferb’s daily creation, Candace’s efforts to bust them, Perry’s duel with Doofenshmirtz, and the requisite song, there’s a lot to pack into such a short show, but the episodes are well-paced so that it never feels rushed. In-jokes and references to previous episodes are fun to spot, and throughout the course of the series Phineas and Ferb have done nearly everything they mention in their theme song: building a rocket, fighting a mummy, discovering something that doesn’t exist, giving a monkey a shower, and of course driving their sister insane.

Among the episodes featured on these two DVDs are some of my personal favorites, including standouts I, Brobot, in which Phineas and Ferb build Phinedroids and Ferbots, Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror, in which the boys build a beach in their backyard, and Flop Starz, in which the boys endeavor to be one-hit wonders.

Check the WRL catalog for The Fast and the Phineas, and The Daze of Summer.

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24

24 is one of the most exciting television shows I’ve ever seen.  It is all about a federal agent named Jack Bauer and the federal agency he works for, CTU– the Counter-Terrorism Unit. They must thwart plots involving various nuclear or biological weapons that pose a serious threat to people in the United States.

The unique format draws you in and hooks you on the story as it unfolds in real time, with each season occurring over one twenty-four hour period and each episode taking up one hour of that day. The writing is great, with action that never stops. Kiefer Sutherland delivers a consistently intense performance as Jack Bauer, and though the supporting cast is not always as good as Sutherland, there are several actors who are great: Dennis Haysbert delivers a commanding performance, first as a U.S. Senator and then as President of the United States, and John Voigt does an admirable job, as you would expect of an actor of his caliber.

Season one is one of the best seasons of 24 (and it is the first season) so it is a great place to start. Jack Bauer finds that he must stop an assassination attempt on a local US Senator, rescue his kidnapped daughter, smoke out a mole within CTU, and identify the secret organization behind these and other nefarious plots. Season one has a surprise ending that will make you want to watch season two right away, so make sure you have the first disc of season 2 checked out when you watch the last disc of season one.

A few caveats: first, though the show is not overtly graphic, it does contain scenes with intense action and violence that may be unsuitable for the young or the squeamish. Second, the mentality of the Jack Bauer character– that he will do whatever it takes to get information (including torture) to save lives– may work in the show but I shudder to think that the “end justifies the means” logic could be used in real life. Third, the show does have its flaws:  some of the situations stretch the believability factor to the breaking point, some of the subplots are not very focused, and some of the seasons get really weird. But the good story-writing, the unique format, and the stellar acting by Kiefer Sutherland and supporting cast members make this intense drama series a must for anyone interested in a good bit of action.

Check the WRL catalog for 24

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Six Feet Under

This television series aired on HBO 2001-2005. It’s probably one of my all-time favorites. I own all five seasons on DVD. The premise of the show is dark and morbid. The Fisher family owns and operates a mortuary out of their home. In the very first episode, the father is killed and leaves the business to his sons, Nate and David. Nate lives in Seattle and wants no part of the funeral home. David, the dutiful son, has been working beside his father for years, but really wanted to become a lawyer. Although neither son shows a genuine interest in the business, they continue operating for the sake of their family. From the pilot episode, we begin to learn about the lives and secrets of each member of the Fisher household. And as their lives unfold, we begin to see just how dysfunctional this family is.

I should place a disclaimer here. The series obviously revolves around death; it is a funeral home after all. At the beginning of each episode someone dies. The death scenes are not overly graphic, but overall the show is intended for a “mature” audience. There are sex scenes, foul language, and occasional drug use, which is not unexpected from an HBO series. This show is not for the weak or faint of heart.

With that out of the way, I need to extol this show’s depth and complexity. The writing feels realistic and gritty. The characters and plot lines are multi-layered; nothing is ever easy and shouldn’t be taken at face value. There is always more to the story. The acting is superb. I don’t think they could have found actors more suited to their roles. While this series would definitely be classified as a drama, there is usually some humor, albeit dark, woven through an episode.

The creator and producer, Alan Ball, has started a new series with HBO titled True Blood, which is based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series, about vampires. I haven’t had the fortune to see it yet, but the first season has just been released on DVD. I imagine that True Blood will be every bit as satisfying as Six Feet Under was.

Check the WRL catalog for Six Feet Under.

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The Office

Apparently, I’ve been hiding under a rock for the past five years, because I completely missed this uproarious series on NBC, which finished airing its fifth season in the spring. Admittedly, I was aware of the show. I heard a few mentions about it, but no one extolling its virtues at length. I knew that it was a rip-off of a British comedy by the same name, which is what I think prevented me from even giving it thirty minutes of my time. I learned my lesson after watching an episode of Coupling, which was a dismal failure in the States. (I have since watched a few episodes of the British version of Coupling, which is actually quite funny. What happened with the American version, I can’t explain, but it was worse than abysmal).

So five seasons in, I finally decided to watch a random episode on NBC thanks to streaming video. It was funny, so I watched a few more, and I was hooked. I decided to start from the beginning, because that’s really the best way to watch a television series, to see how the characters and plots evolve. Some shows require it, like Lost or 24, while others have little continuity between episode storylines. I would recommend watching The Office in order, starting with season one. The episodes do build on one another and you learn the quirks and habits of the individual characters that explain a lot about what I saw in the few episodes I tried in the middle of season five.

While all of the episodes are extremely funny, there were two that had me in tears—Season 2, episode 12 titled “The Injury” and Season 5, episodes 14/15 called “Stress Relief.” In “The Injury,” Michael Scott, the boss of the office, cooks his foot on a George Foreman grill. In “Stress Relief,” the office learns CPR where one of the employees, Dwight, cuts the face off the dummy and wears it as a mask (Hannibal Lecter style). I’m sure these two descriptions give you an idea about the type of humor they’re writing here. Sometimes it’s a bit twisted or even a bit outrageous, and that might not be for everyone. But I think a lot of people will really identify with the core premise of the show, which is the dynamics of individuals working in an office—the friendships, romantic relationships, pranks, disagreements, and impolitic comments or actions that we all encounter in our work settings. Aren’t there days when you think, “I feel like I’m living in a television show?”

Definitely give this series a try if you haven’t yet. WRL owns seasons one and two on DVD.

Check the WRL catalog for The Office.

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Dogtown: New Beginnings and Dogtown: Second Chances

Anyone interested in dogs or animals in general won’t want to miss these collections of episodes of the show Dogtown, which ran originally on the National Geographic Channel.  Dogtown is a large dog-rescue facility that is a part of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in the beautiful canyon country of southern Utah. It has cared for thousands of dogs in this country and from around the world.  This includes abandoned, abused and  severely sick dogs who would have died if Dogtown’s dedicated staff had not rescued them.

Any dog who winds up at Dogtown is one lucky canine.  They get to live in a beautiful setting with other of their kind. They are given whatever treatment is needed to rehabilitate them so that they are ready for adoption into a loving home. If they are physically sick, like the chow in the episode “Second Chances,” veterinarians like Dr.  Michael Dix will do whatever is necessary to diagnose and treat the ailment.  Cost is never a factor once a dog has been admitted.  If they suffer from abuse, like many of the 22 dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s notorious Bad Newz Kennels (which you can see in the episode “Saving the Michael Vick Dogs”), they are provided with trainers and a comprehensive treatment program to help them overcome their trauma. Though I was dismayed and angered at the profound physical and emotional abuse of Michael Vick’s dogs,  I think the theme of  Dogtown is one of hope:  we should be thankful that these animals were saved before it was too late.

The dogs themselves makes these DVDs worth watching.  Some will make you laugh, like Wiggles, a little dog with a huge overbite whose neurological condition makes him stagger around like a drunken sailor.  Some will amaze you, like Animal, who was rescued from a Nebraska puppy mill. This completely wild and uncontrollable dog went through a gradual but huge transformation once some of her painful physical symptoms were dealt with, so much so that she was given a new name, Noble.  Some will make you shed a few tears when you see the progress they make despite the abuse they endured, like Georgia, a champion fight dog who had all of her teeth removed while at the Bad Newz Kennels.

Animal lovers might also want to take a look at several books published by The Best Friends Animal Society. Dogtown: A Sanctuary for Rescued Dogs, by Bob Somerville, is a companion book to the series that presents much of the same information but includes lots of pictures and details about the dogs.  I’ve also enjoyed reading Not Left Behind : Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans.  Finally, for all of you cat people, there’s The Cats of Kittyville: New Lives for Rescued Felines.

Check the WRL catalog for Dogtown: New Beginnings

Check the WRL catalog for Dogtown: Second Chances

http://catalog.wrl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=WQ51238T09750.43344&menu=search&aspect=subtab48&npp=12&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=j&ri=1&source=~!horizon&index=BIB&term=567317&x=0&y=0&aspect=subtab48

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Slings and Arrows

Here in Williamsburg, we’re halfway through this summer’s Virginia Shakespeare Festival. In honor of the stage in general and the Bard in particular, try this Canadian comedy series for a midsummer night’s entertainment.

The fictional New Burbage Shakespeare Festival is two weeks away from curtains-up on Hamlet when its artistic director, Oliver Welles, unexpectedly bites the dust (leaving instructions that his skull be used onstage in all future performances of the play). His last minute replacement is the extremely reluctant Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross), who played a brilliant Hamlet himself seven years ago—at least, for three performances. Halfway through the fourth, Tennant had a nervous breakdown, leapt into Ophelia’s onstage grave, and went “screaming out into the night, mad as a hatter.”

Now he’s back, forced to face unresolved issues with actress Ellen Fanshawe, formerly the Ophelia to his Hamlet and now his leading lady. Moreover, this production’s Hamlet is an American movie star best known for his work in films with lots of explosions; the board of directors is being subverted by a perky, scheming businesswoman with her own vision of a commercially-successful “Shakespeareville;” and Tennant is being haunted by the recently-deceased Oliver, whose sarcastic commentary only he can hear.

These six episodes feature a great ensemble cast; fast, funny dialogue with plenty of theatre jokes; and, much like Shakespeare, a mix of pathos and farce. Paul Gross is fantastic as the charmingly eccentric Tennant trying to pull together the Play That Drove Him Mad.

Check the WRL catalog for Slings and Arrows.

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