It was a pleasant surprise when I noticed my DVR recording something Monday morning.  I checked to see it was an episode of the Closer from last Season.  Then I thought, "Gee, the Closer should be coming back on... Oh!" Checked ahead on the TV guide and saw it was that joyous day of the Closer's return.  I was stoked, left the TV on TNT for the rest of the day.  So what was bad about that day?  Well, I opened up Variety to see Kyra Sedgewick all over it.  Awesome, then I read she was getting a star on the walk of fame.  What?  Problem was, it was happening as I was reading it (and I was up early too!).  So I missed that and I was gonna go cause I've never been to one of those.  But alas, there was at least the Closer to watch.

And it was a great episode.  It took up where it left off as far as emotional beats.  The crew walks into an especially heinous crime when they find a mother, grandmother and two kids shot to death and covered with a blanket.  The father wasn't there so you assume he was the killer until they bring him in for questioning and he rips your heart out when he hears the news.  He even barfs in a waste basket, cries that he needs to get home... I thought it was pretty powerful, in the hard to watch way.  I felt terrible for him and I think, that right there just put me there for the rest of the episode. 

Then we learn that it was a case of mistaken identity in that the killer got the address wrong (Sonuvabitch!).  When Brenda Leigh and Provenza stumble on the actual target, who shows up but the FBI!  I was cussing them out.  And then we find out that one of those dicks working the case accidentally exposed the address of the witness.  "You idiot!" I yelled.  I'm like an old grandpa yelling at rassling!  Anyway, the season opener was fantastic when the mystery of who the killer was, was uncovered it was hard to believe yet it made perfect sense.  ONe thing about the Closer is that they kind of underline what it is to be a cop and deal with the horrible things people do everyday.  We just don't know.  But I think one line kind of typified it and it was as much the delivery as anything.  While Provenza was still considering the Father a suspect, they find he's a healfh food junky and didn't allow sweets to his family.  Having found a box of candy bars on the scene Provenza surmises the family may have been killed over the candy.  Brenda Leigh was incredulous and Provenza says, solemnly, "people kill for much less."

Can''t wait til next mOnday (and I never thought I'd say that.)

What happened, did the Closer end?  Was Deadorooney turned off the show? Did he stop blogging altogether?  I'll tell you.  I was called away on a mission of the utmost importance.  The state of the very universe hang in the balance as the invading forces of Clauthon were stealthily appearing in orbit around our fair planet.  They called me, because of they way I handled the last crisis, but this.... this was different.  I told them straight away, "listen!  This is beyond even me, it requires a brain so tactically acute, so probing and exact," that I would have to, "refer them to another."  And refer I did... I told them to get the Closer.  Before I could mold my lips to speak her name, they had already deciphered my meaning.  Blah, blah, blah, she saved the world, okay next.

The Closer is a couple of weeks from airing.  How great is my anticipation?  Oh, yes, Sanchez was mortally wounded and on a medevac flight.  The explosion on the top of the building was fantastic, especially in HD.  Yeah, the season turned out great; a good level was maintained and then raised, so bravo.  It'll be nice to have the Closer back, I'm sure many will agree.

It appears that summer is coming to an end and this makes me both happy and sad.  Happy in that the weather will hopefully become milder; happy in that football is back.  But then there is the sad and first on that list is the end of this years season of the Closer.  But its not quite over yet.  I just watched "Tijuana Brass" and am pleased to see the series ramping up the drama and working some fantastic plot twists.

Brenda Leigh finds herself in the middle of a controversy spurred on by that bothersome journalist who makes it a point to stick it to priority homicide on suspicion of uneven handling of cases based on race or social standing. (which is commendable but let's stick to the Closer Universe).  What'shisface is off base and uninformed as far as the details but I think its inferred that priority homicide is a thankless job... ok, being a cop in general is and I have experience with thankless jobs so I can relate... to a thankless job.

At any rate, the article is not good and sends the department into a bit of a frenzy.  Meanwhile this weeks stiffs turn up in the bed of a pick up truck under the 6th st. Bridge (which is exactly where it's filmed :) maybe.).  In the teaser we see a man of the cloth performing last rights after painstakingly removing a tarp from the truck bed.  This is great cause you just don't know what to think.  Um, so with all the controversy following the article, Chief Pope doesn't want Brenda Leigh (whose name is misspelled in the article) to go running up on the church.  This is a great twist if for nothing else then watching her whole squad plead with her to think twice about storming down to the church when the priest doesn't return her request for a visit. 

The plot thickens when we find out that the victims in this weeks murder were Tijuana police officers.  From here we get a summary of the corruption issues that are going on in Mexico right now (but there's too much there to get into too much detail.).  So the investigation starts to focus on a gentleman who has aided authorities in battling said corruption and is currently in hiding.  He is also the suspect but the case is quickly shaping up to be "self-defense"

Enter the Commendante.  He comes down from TJ in order to lend a helping hand as well as find the suspect that Brenda Leigh is looking for as well.  He is helpful but watchers of the Closer know that he's probably up to something.  Well in the end, Brenda gets to the heart of the crime, goes past the simple acts and peers into the spirit of the crime if you will as well as the motives of those protecting the suspect.  And in another great setup where the perpetrator thinks he's helping the case, she turns the tables on the Commendante and shows hiim proof that he is indeed the real criminal.  And what does he do?

That lil bastard tries to choke out Brenda Leigh!  I was voting for a beat down but he just got a rough take down and... well... let's just say he get's his just desserts.  The whole thing with the paper- priority homicide goes bye-bye and now Brenda Leigh will be in charge of Major Crimes (like the Wire).  That means she's solving all types of shit.  So then next season should be Brenda running a major crimes unit.  I'm kind of excited about that.  We'll see how it pans out but it does open the door for more variety eventhough most of the crimes she solves are murders at heart they usually involve plenty of major crimes.

Closer delivers once again, missed second half of the Packers game but Aaron Rodgers.... Kyra Sedgewick.... I'm going with the Closer.

Have you ever watched the Closer?  It really seems like a show my Grandparents would watch in some ways but I think its great.  There aren't many hour long dramas that consistently have me laughing my ass off and recently almost moved to tears.  Maybe I'm just corny.  The last episode saw Detective Sanchez's brother-in-law shot for wearing a hat he gave him.  It took place around the corner from his house while Martinez was working on his Harley.

Anyway, Chief Johnson (Sedgwick :-} ) has to make sure Sanchez stays away from the case lest he ruin it with his intimacy to the victim.  The comical highlight in this episode was Puppet a suspect they brought in for questioning.  He came in of his "own violation" that was chuckle worthy but he just gets better.  Chief Johnson asks him if the shooter was a "blood or a crip" and puppet answers, "Bloods and Crips, those are black gangs, the shooter not black" (paraphrase and a lot funnier to hear him say it).  They call him puppet because he looks like a puppet.  I don't know about that (well yeah) but he was a hilarious character.

Ah the Closer, nothing gets me quite like hearing Sedgwick introduce herself.  You have to hear the way she says "Johnson" its adorable.  Its also great when she has to go-off on people for screwing up.  She takes a lot of abuse though, she gets called a bitch in the interview room more times than  I could stand without reaching across the table and beating a suspect with a stapler. 

Back to the story, so they solve the murder and stuff and Sanchez finally breaks down.  Now the stuff he did earlier in the show to show his characters emotional state was great.  I felt really uncomfortable as the whole unit did when they visited him in the hospital.  Then he was being an understandable douche mucking up the investigation but the end where he weeps uncontrollably into Lt. Provenza's shoulder was moving.  Bravo. 

Or I could be suffering from symptoms of depression.  The Closer rules!

I've been developing my taste for European futbol over the course of 2008 with the help of my neighbor cum friends who live on the level above me.  I discovered the joy of futbol in watching the World Cup which caught my attention many years ago on a sleepless night where the games were being played at 2 and 3 in the morning.  The next world cup was even better for me because I met others who were up late watching as well.  This year I caught the UEFA cup and the champions league final being introduced to even more players and teams.

But its difficult to pick a team from your favorite players because they rearely stay with a club for any substantial amount of time.  Not being from Europe its hard to pick a team based on sentimental reasons of dwelling.  I intially went with Manchester United cause I love Boddington's beer, I like a lot of the players on the team, like Wayne Rooney and of course Reynaldo but I feel like a front runner a bit cause I think they might be like the Dallas Cowboys of futbol.  My buddy is a Man-U fan and his brother is a Chelsea fan.  I'm not quite feeling Chelsea, I don't like their uni's.

I'm watching the Arsenal vs. Newcastle match and Arsenal is the bomb!  I'm feeling them they have some players I'm familiar with and their play on a whole is rad.  So at the moment I'm leaning towards Arsenal.  I feel a little front runnerish with them too but I don't think its as bad as Man-u.  I want to check out Liverpool though because they have Fernando Torres who I think is the dope after a goal he willed in during the final match of UEFA 2008.

I'll keep my options open...
 

I've noticed that for some of the more iconic comic book properties, the animated series has on average out-shined its live action counter part.  For every terrible Batman live action flick there are dozens of awesome Batman cartoons.  The Justice League cartoon trumps what we've seen of the ideas for a live action Justice League by far.  But the interpretation of Superman in Justice League unlimited seems pretty contemporary as well. 

So why haven't we seen more collaboration with the minds behind the Animated series involved in some of the Live Action stuff?  It just seems like they're more in tune with the comics and that may be because they're working in a serial medium but every comic book has a few flagship story lines if you will.  I'm probably ignorant to the fact that they do consult these guys...

So given how awesome Dark Knight is/was and Batman Begins, do you think it trumps the live action, is not comparable to the live action, or is equal in worth?  I love to see my favorite comic book characters in live action and I love to see them animated too.  I just hate to see them suck.  And how about the universes?  Live Action vs. Animated Series vs. Comic book.

This is hardly breaking news for those of you who are big fans of Cowboy Bebop but with the latest wave in the Anime to live action movie parade (Akira, Ghost in the Shell), many "fans" of these properties are probably experiencing... bubble guts. So far history has been spotty for fan fav flicks. Just look at what happened to Spawn, Daredevil, Elektra; these small horrors inspire most fans to a Padme style, "Vote of No Confidence" in major studios. (beware of Chancellor Valorum'!)

So it is Apropos that Cowboy Bebop has been selected for the jump to live action. Why? The irony, of course, sheer elegance in its simplicity.  You see, in Jazz, when Bebop came along, Jazz musicians started to care less about making people dance, which wasn't a great thing for dance clubs.  Instead they were into coming up with crazier and more intricate forms of jazz music and really speaking in a musical language that only other Jazz musicians could truly appreciate. This lead to fuller, richer jazz but was anathema to its popularity.

Now Hollywood makes movies for us to watch. It would be presumptuous to say they make movies FOR us because they don't. If they were making movies for me well... But Hollywood does aim at demographics and a built in audience is not something anyone in a business for profit is going to piss away.  But through mismanagement, incompetence or spite we've grown accustom to Hollywood doing it their way when it comes to the properties that we love.  So what is the benefit? What do they gain from messing up your favorite comic book?

A standard?  We know all films can't be great; we figure they could at least be good but come on, then we'd know we were in the Matrix.  You can't have the audience expecting too much.  You gotta be able to look at Dark Knight and say, "there ain't nothing like that."  There can't be a chance that Daredevil ends up being better than Dark Knight (we're talking Batman here).  Many are anxious about Watchmen but I think Warners sees this as a flagship so it cannot fail.

But this leaves room for me, a big fan of Cowboy Bebop, to worry.  Will Cowboy Bebop get sacrificed to make Akira look better?  Will Akira suck so that Ghost in the Shell can be awesome? 

Ghost should be fine in the hands of Spielberg that's a bet I'm willing to take. Akira is pulling the Manga card and telling us up front it's Neo-Manhattan and its based on the books not the landmark animated film (I'm only moderately worried about that).  Cowboy Bebop may just be unpopular enough to merit a less than sparkling effort so I'm extremely worried. But alas, there's so many episodes to watch plus the movie, that in the end, nothing will really be lost by a bad live action version of Bebop.  

And Bebop is way cool Jazz.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/07/22/fox-developing-cowboy-bebop-live-action-feature-film/