Best TV show I’ve seen in a long time

I’ve liked a lot of television shows. Ever since I got my ReplayTV a couple of years ago, I’ve been an efficient television watcher. I set things up to record, I watch my shows and I’m done. I don’t channel surf and I only record and watch things that I think are worth my time.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve gotten hooked on *The West Wing*, I’ve lost interest in *ER*, I’ve been both hot and cold for *CSI* and I’ve decided (quickly) that I **hate** *CSI: Miami.* I enjoy *Numb3rs* but won’t cry if I miss it, and my all-time favorite television show is *Sports Night*.

However, I’ve discovered a show that I simply have to watch whenever I can. It’s so good that I find myself thinking about it while driving and bringing it up in class to make a point to my students. It really is that good. The show is, of course, [House](http://www.fox.com/house/).

The show is fantastic because of the work of [Hugh Laurie](http://imdb.com/name/nm0491402/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9aHVnaCBsYXVyaWV8ZnQ9MXxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8Y289MXxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=20) who plays the title character, Dr. Greg House. House is the Chief of Diagnostic Medicine at a fictional teaching hospital in New Jersey. He is, basically, Sherlock Holmes in a hospital, but – if you can believe this – he’s even more arrogant and self-centered than Holmes ever was.

House is one of those characters so filled with pathos that you love to hate him and hate to love him. The closest I can come up with from recent television history are Dr. Peter Benton and Dr. Romano, both from [another medical drama with a short name](http://www.nbc.com/ER/). Laurie is simply phenomenal in this role and you owe it to yourself to watch it just to see him. And, that’s despite his history:

Yes, that’s Laurie there, in the circle, playing the stupid, arrogant businessman in a piece of garbage movie called [Flight of the Phoenix](http://imdb.com/title/tt0377062/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9ZmxpZ2h0IHBob2VuaXh8ZnQ9MXxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8Y289MXxodG1sPTF8bm09MQ__;fc=1;ft=22;fm=1). In retrospect, he’s not bad in that film, but, like [Giovanni Ribisi](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000610/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9cmliaXNpfGZ0PTF8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=22;fm=1), the film’s talented star, Laurie is hobbled by a horrible, horrible script. Yuck. I don’t even want to think about that anymore.

Anyway, I’m rambling, so let me bring this puppy home: Watch *House*. If you can, rent or buy the DVDs from the first season to catch yourself up to speed. It’s fantastic.

Filed under: General, Reviews

Movie Review: Flawless

Make a list of modern movie characters. You know, the ones that we’re all familiar with because they’re so predictably played on the big screen. What’s on your list? Here’s mine:

• Hero cop who is down on his luck (Copland)
• Sleazy criminal chasing the fortune another crook stole from him (all the bad guys in all the Lethal Weapon movies)
• Embittered societal cast-off who discovers a heart of gold (The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its knockoffs, like Powder)
• Nebbish fly-on-the-wall who “surprises” us at the climax by holding the key to the mystery (The Usual Suspects)
• Tough-as-nails hooker with a giving, loving personality (Pretty Woman)

These are all pretty formulaic characters… people we’ve met many times before. But, tonight, literally minutes before I sat down to write this, I met all of these people again, for the very first time.

I just finished watching Flawless, Joel Schumacher’s 1999 film starring Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The movie’s plot outline says, “An ultraconservative security guard suffers a stroke and gets rehabilitative singing lessons from the drag queen next door.” But, reducing this film to that description is like saying Citizen Kane is, “a movie about politics.”

Flawless is a brutally honest film. Its characters inhabit a world that as real as the one in which I live. There is nothing formulaic, nothing artificial or dramatic about their lives. That is not to say that the movie is anything less than riviting, because, let me tell you, it is.

It’s rare to see a trully compelling performance in mainstream films nowadays. Thinking about recent trips to the theater, I’m able to recall Russel Crowe in parts of Gladiator, Tom Hanks in the first two acts of Cast Away and… that’s about it. (Of course, with three kids under the age of 5, I don’t get out to the movies much.) But, in this movie, compelling performances literally compete with one another for screen time.

First and foremost, of course, is DeNiro. The man is, inarguably, one of the five most talented living American actors , and this performance is among his best work. I mean, the man can make me bear to sit through crap like The Score, imagine how much fun it is to watch him play a real character! In Flawless, DeNiro plays Walt Koontz, an ex-hero cop who (according to the back of the DVD box) now works as a security guard. He’s introduced to us as a person we’re probably not going to like very much: he smokes, frequents hookers, swears too much and looks down at almost everyone, especially the drag queens in his building who’s singing disturbs his miserable little life.

The queen-Queen is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, a name you’d better learn to recognize. You know him, even if you don’t think you do. He’s been in Boogie Nights, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Magnolia, Twister, State and Main, Patch Adams and Almost Famous, to name just a few of his recent triumphs. In each of the films listed, he plays a totally different character… the man is a chameleon!

Hoffman’s Rusty Zimmerman is simply a totally believable character. The twists and turns, the mood swings, the sense of humor, the sense of confidence mixed with lack of confidence, the mannerisms… all of it. It’s the kind of performance I’d like to show my acting students. It’s complete.

And, the most frustrating thing about this movie is that, despite the fact that the two principles – two giants of theater arts – both turn in perfect performances, they don’t really stand out, because the rest of the cast keeps up with them. Luis Saguar as the despicable drug dealer, Dapne Rubin-Vega as the misunderstood prostitute, Skipp Sudduth’s classic character acting… they’re all “simply fabulous!”

This is a movie that threatens to go over the top in just about every way possible. It’s a drama/comedy/murder mystery/crime story/thriller/musical about a cop, his poker buddies, his gay singing teacher, the gang of drag queens and the drug dealers trying to kill them all. The potential for offensiveness, banality, tastelessness, confusion and pandering is awe-inspiring. Yet, the film makes not a single misstep,

It’s an aptly named masterpiece, one of the best films I’ve seen in years. I recommend you see it. Soon.

Filed under: General, Reviews