The Last Templar

Did anyone else watch The Last Templar on NBC? It was shown as a four-hour miniseries on Sunday and Monday nights. I'd read the book by Raymond Khoury when it came out a couple of years ago, since I'm a total Templar freak, and I remembered enjoying it, but I'd forgotten most of the details, so a movie version sounded good to me.

What I did remember was the exciting opening scene in which four men, dressed like Knights Templar, ride through the streets of New York to an art museum where priceless treasures from the Vatican are on display. The men ride their horses up the museum steps, behead a police officer then commit Grand Theft Artifacts. The opening scene was surely written with a movie in mind, esp. since Khoury was a screenwriter before he became a novelist, and the movie opener didn't disappoint.

What I didn't remember was Tess, the female protagonist played by Mira Sorvino, being so annoying. I really didn't remember the book Tess grabbing a crozier from the museum exhibit, jumping on a police horse in her cocktail dress and 4-inch stillettos and chasing the robbers into Central Park. I re-read the opening of the book and nope, that didn't happen. Excuse my snark, but it's like the screenwriters thought the character wasn't interesting enough as written so they turned her into a cross between Carrie Bradshaw and Indiana Jones. I shouldn't be surprised since Hollywood often dumbs down female characters. I don't think the problem was with Mira Sorvino's performance, she just didn't have much to work with. Neither did Scott Foley as a bland FBI agent, and I know he can do action; I watch him on The Unit all the time.

The plot wasn't much changed and the story is fairly interesting, and if you hadn't read the book you might have enjoyed it. Anyone else have an opinion?

Linda

Jack is back!

Tonight brings the long-awaited seventh season of 24, one of my shows. The two-hour premiere of Day Seven debuts tonight at 8PM EST. (For those not familiar with the show, each season consists of one day in 24 one-hour episodes in which none of the characters ever get to eat or sleep. They live on coffee which may be one reason why it's all so fast-paced and frantic. )

In Season 7, Jack Baur, our intrepid hero / anti-hero, has been brought back to Washington, DC to face Congressional hearings on whether he violated US policies by torturing suspects when he worked for the Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) in LA. Part of the fun was in recognizing the names of the places involved, but it was pretty amusing to think that so many international terrorists wanted to blow up the San Fernando Valley. Really? This year the show moves to D.C. which may provide a little more realism. Or not. Washington has become pretty surreal lately.

The show has been some controversy in recent years because of its depiction of torture, excuse me, enhanced interrogation techniques. Here are just a couple of links if you're interested in following the controversy:

Democracy Now

Christian Science Monitor

Now I'm not in favor of torture, and frankly, some of those scenes had me cringing in my seat. When Jack needs information, nothing stops him, even if the bad guy he's interrogating is his brother. But still, the show is pure, entertaining fun. Even Dick Cheney likes it, and I imagine that's the one thing he and I agree on.

So what is the message to be gleaned from 24? That torture works? No, there's too much real life evidence to the contrary. To me, the message of 24 is that you can trust Bad Jack Bauer to get the job done by any means he deems necessary, even if he has to disobey a direct order to do. He always gives 120%. Jack marches to his own drummer and follows his own conscience, however twisted his actions may seem to us. He can also be counted on to protect the innocent. In many ways, Jack is the perfect hero for our time: complex, scarred and imperfect. He's probably suffering from severe PTSD and shouldn't be allowed to carry a gun, but this TV not real life.

What you can't count on in the world of 24 is the government. You never know who's going to betray Jack, and by extention, the rest of us. Sometimes the betrayal goes all the way to the Oval Office, as with Gregory Itzin's duplicitous President Logan, a slimy villain if there ever was one. Good job, Greg!

Another interesting tidbit about 24 is that it may have made it easier for the American people to accept the idea of an African-American president. So far, there have been two on 24, presidents David and Wayne Palmer, played by Dennis Haysbert and D. B. Woodside. They were the good presidents, the ones you could trust, though First Lady Sherry Palmer was a real piece of work. Did that make it easier for Barack Obama to be elected? Who knows? If so, the good news this season is 24 has the first female president in the show's history.

Click here for more background on the show and a list of episodes.

Will you be watching tonight? The DH and I will!

Linda

Swingtown Debuts

Swingtown, the series about married swingers in the 1970's debuted last night on CBS. I imagine the high concept for this was something like Desperate Housewives meets Love, American Style. I can't say it's great drama, but it is fun escapist fare, esp. for those of us like me who actually remember the 70's. The cast is attractive and sophisticated and the music is fun and familiar. The clothes, on the other hand... What can I say? Seventies fashions were comfortable but you can't call them classic.

Swingtown starts with the Bicentenial celebrations in July 1976 and does a good job of capturing the hedonistic mood of the era. The Vietnam War was over and the Sexual Revolution in full swing. In the show, Susan and Bruce Miller move into a new neighborhood across from Tom and Trina Decker, a couple who have an open marriage. The setting is, I believe, a suburb of Chicago, since there's a mention of O'Hare Airport in scene one (Tom is a pilot for a commercial airline) and the Millers new home is referred to as a "lakeside mansion". Susan, who is feeling restless, has mixed feelings about leaving her old house and best friend, Janet, but she is soon seduced by the Decker's lifestyle. (And presumably the great group sex which remains mostly off screen. This is CBS, after all, not a premium cable channel.)

Is the show over the top? Probably. Is it unrealistic for the time? Not so much. Group sex and infidelity weren't invented in the 70's but they were talked about more openly. I remember reading a little bit of Open Marriage: A New Life Style for Couples by Nena and George O'Neill when it came out in 1972. I got to the part where they said jealousy wasn't a natural emotion but a learned response and quit reading. That notion seemed to be a big part of their premise and I wasn't buying it. No one teaches a small child to be jealous, it just happens. Usually when a little brother or sister comes along, LOL. At the time I read this, my mom and dad had a little Chihuahua who went into a snit whenever one of us petted another dog. We didn't teach her that, believe me. It was a hoot to see her sulk, though.

Will the show catch on? Who knows. I'll keep watching though, at least until we get to the disco era. Who knows, I might pick up some ideas for an erotic story.

Did you watch Swingtown? If so, what did you think?

Linda / Lyndi