reedus on television

Hawaii 5-0 "Pilot" 1.1: *SPOILER ALERT* Look out. Here comes the Steve McGarrett of the new century, self-righteous uber-soldier who will tear Hawaii apart if he must in order to drag, howling, to justice the doers of evil. And here's the new Dano, the Lear's-Fool who will ground McGarrett to all that is good and earthly using humor as his weapon and humble him when necessary with well-placed jibes.

I admit it. I was excited. (This was several years ago, in my defense.) I marked the date on my calendar, and looked forward to it. First of all, the theme song, right? Right up there on any list of the best, alongside Perry Mason, Peter Gunn, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Then it had Alex O'Loughlin, who (in my defense) was a real actor back then, not just a muscle-bound action-toy with a sack full of soap-opera emoticon-faces he swapped out as queued by the script. (In fact, they probably have little colored dots next to his lines on the daily pages: red for anger-face, green for betrayal-face, a jaunty damask for flirty-face.) Not only did it serve up those attractions, but the pilot offered BOTH Reedus AND James Marsters as terrorist brothers who piss off the wrong set of folks on the island. It sounded like some kind of heaven to me.

It's not, alas, any kind of heaven at all. In the early episodes, Steve and Dano enjoy a pleasant rapport, which I'm guessing (I gave up during the first season) has worn thin with age and enforced proximity. As far as Reedus goes, he's fantastic in that opener, shackled as Steve's prisoner and riding in a military transport, his eyes shining with it as he gently taunts his captor like a feline playing with its food. Then there's a big action sequence with lots of gratuitous shaky-cam, and the long and short of it is that Reedus is DEAD BEFORE THEY EVEN PLAY THE THEME-SONG. Sheesh. As for Marsters, his role lasts longer, but we still barely ever see the guy, and he never shines with it like Reedus did, for his TWENTY DAMN SECONDS.

Rating: a grudging two stars, with reservations
Reedus Factor: two stars, for one shining moment, but blink and you'll miss it

Law & Order SUV "Influence" 7.22: It's hard not to love Mariska Hargitay. She projects a warm genuineness, there's a gentleness to her undeniable strength, and she's attractive in the way a real person is attractive, as opposed to the Hollywood way, with its fascistic fetishes for symmetry and thinness.

Regardless, this show is still black-hearted and dishonest. Just because it's one of the better cop shows on network television doesn't mean it's not a prurient pile of crap masked as hardcore piety. It seems to want to project itself as a forum for discussion of issues facing us as citizens of a troubled modern America, but it's fearmongering propaganda, all the same.

Concerning Reedus, here's a gentle digression about what separates American actors from British: the British get training. Great training. Some yanks do, too, sure, but it's not the priority like it is there. Over here, if you've got the looks, the charisma, the "intangible X", and a wellspring of natural talent, that's the crucial thing. In England, you get taught skills: tricks on which you can fall back when you're cast in a role which falls awry of your strengths. Bob Hoskins once told a story about being in a play directed by Olivier, and there was a line he had which he knew for a fact ought to be funny, but no matter what he did, he couldn't coax the audience to laugh. He confessed as much to his director, and Olivier said, "Before you speak it, take two steps back and throw your arms, like so," and, sure enough, when Hoskins followed the instructions, the audience laughed every time. The point is this: not that taking two steps back makes any line funny (in fact, Hoskins said it never worked for him again, on any other line), but that acting doesn't just involve inspiration from within. There are external tactics you can use, as well, which can communicate emotion and intention with as much or more clarity and honesty than unadulterated, mumblecore spontaneity can.

I mention it because Reedus needs an Olivier to teach him some of that. If a role is written well and plays to his strengths, he can fascinate and shine with the best. If it's badly-written and one-dimensional, like this one is (he's a rock star who's on a crusade to wipe out what he sees as the totalitarian hold that psychiatry, and in particular the mood-altering drugs shrinks wield, have over our culture), he is utterly lost. He glibs through his lines uncertainly, seemingly afraid to commit. His hands gesture weakly and often block his face, as if in subconscious flight. He is never at his ease, and if you didn't already know it, you'd never guess at the extent of his talent.

Rating: one star, as a gesture to the lovely Mariska Hargitay
Reedus Factor: zero stars

Charmed "Sense and Sense Ability" 5.20: Wow, what a bad show. It spans a whole range of mediocrity from cute right across the board to cutesy. It's constructed mostly of the darlin'est filler, shamelessly comprised of babies, evil monkey totems, torch songs, ham-faced mugging and nice, simplistic relationships between one-dimensional people. Everyone in the Charmed-verse is either all good or all bad; there are no greys inhabiting this spectrum. Reedus is actually great for that kind of problem, because even at his squeaky-cleanest, he always brings some bad. And because even HE verges on cuteness here, you know for a fact that something is very wrong with this show. Grace Zabriskie is also guest starring, and I love her, and it's still bad.

Rating: no stars
Reedus Factor: one star. because he's cute.

Charmed "Necromancing the Stone" 5.21: OK, this one is better. It's still a bad show, obviously, but Nate (Reedus) gets a truth spell cast on him, so he gets to be funny, and how often do we get to see that? If you're going to suffer through an episode, this is the one to go for. Just fast-forward through everything that is non-Reedus.

Rating: no stars
Reedus Factor: three stars