Mindy Newell: Ho-Hum Heroics
Im-not-so-ho, the best thing about The Flash is Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West and John Wesley Shipp as Barry’s father. Im-not-so-ho, the best things about Gotham are Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, and Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot. Im-not-so-ho, the best things about Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. are Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson and Ming Na-Wen as Melinda May.
What does that say about me?
Am I getting old? Am I no longer able to appreciate a pretty-boy face or a hot young thang? Am I just being nostalgic in my appreciation of Martin, who originated the part of Tony in Rent on Broadway and played Detective Ed Green (opposite the brilliant and missed Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Brisco) on Law & Order, which I still regularly watch in reruns, and Ming Na-Wen, who played Dr. Jing-Mei “Deb” Chen on E.R., one of my favorite television shows ever, and not just because of George Clooney or because it also introduced me to British actress Alex Kingston, best known to Whovians as Melanie Pond, a.k.a. River Song.
Or is it that the only real acting chops being demonstrated, the only “this is how real people talk” dialogue is coming out of the mouths of the afore-mentioned actors?
Yeah, I’m finding all the rest of them pretty boring, cogs spit out of the Hollywood machine, cardboard cut-outs, paper dolls. I haven’t seen any one of them (Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen, Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Chloe Bennet’s Skye, et.al.) display more to me than some experience at acting class. Okay, I do like Iain de Caestecker as poor, fucked-up Leo Fitz, but only as long as he continues to play a warped, hallucinating, schizo – if, as seems evident from the last televised episode, Fitz is going to be suddenly cured and become one of the cardboard cut-outs, then, well…so long, Fitz.
Is the fault in the writing? Take Selena Kyle for instance. The girl is supposed to be living on the streets, for cryin’ out loud! What streets? Rodeo Drive? Fifth Avenue? Place Vendome? And she talks like a spoiled brat from Grosse Point or Upper Saddle River, not a hardened kid dealing with junkies and pimps and the other “underworld denizens” of the inner city. I mean, at least young Bruce Wayne is burning himself with the flames from candlesticks. That kid is seriously disturbed. What’s Selena doing? Giving milk to stray kitties. Awww, isn’t that cute?
Yeah, so for me, it is the fault of the writers on these collective shows. I feel like they’re writing from one of those computer programs for aspiring writers that offer plots and characters from a menu that looks like it was cooked up in a Chinese restaurant’s wok, not from their life experience, not from their love of the characters or the comics…not from their hearts.
As Van Buren, the manager of the hard-luck Washington Senators in Damn Yankees sings, you gotta care, you gotta believe, “You gotta have heart, all you really need is heart…”
So, yeah, writers of The Flash, of Gotham, of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., have heart. Don’t worry about pleasing your corporate suits. Take chances. Push the envelope of television standards and practices. You’ll win, because you’ll get the audiences. And audiences mean ratings. And ratings mean renewals. And renewals mean you all keep your jobs.
So have some guts, writers! You’ve got genies in magic bottles just waitin’ to come out. Rub those bottles and make it happen.
As for me, I’m crossing my fingers for Constantine.
To be honest, Donal Logue was the only thing that sparked enough interest in Gotham for me to try it out. The man’s a phenomenal character actor who doesn’t get nearly enough respect for his skills.
I have loved him since this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irzus_CUkow
Yeah, uhmmm… No.
It always irks me, when people talk about “bad dialogue” in their critiques of TV & film. Pray-tell, what is a person from the streets supposed to sound like? Can you give us an example?
That’s a trick question, btw; I’ve met my share of homeless people, & they sound like anything ranging from college professors, to rappers. Not-so-ironically enough, some of them actually were those things, prior to their misfortunes.
So your stereotyping of how homeless people should sound (& act; I’ve also seen numerous homeless folks feed their animals before they feed themselves) is greatly appreciated.
That said, DCTV is, hands down, some of the best stuff on TV right now. Gotham is intense, Arrow is an adrenaline rush, & Flash is just plain fun. Constantine has a high standard to meet, based on the others, but basing it on the others, I have no doubt that it will bring DC/WB to 4-0.
Well, “Sam,” you do bring up some good points, and perhaps I did go a bit “overbroad” in saying that all homeless people are pimps, junkies, thiefs, etc. Of course I know, especially being a nurse in a city hospital, that in the real world all those who are cursed with homelessness and poverty are NOT bad persons…but I was talking about a television show in which the purpose of dialogue is D-R-A-M-A, and there just isn’t any drama in the way Selina is portrayed. I stand by Frank Miller’s–and my own–portrayal of Selina/Catwoman. Brought up hard, ex-prostitute, thief, world-weary with a cynical sense of humor about it all; I’m not “down” with the recent portrayal of her in DC Comics as a…what? Good-hearted thief? Cute and wholesome underneath it all? Playful and kittenish? It just doesn’t read true to me.