Bev Vincent

I had an idea for a new project a couple of days ago. I emailed my agent to see if he thinks its viable. Until I hear back from him, I’m putting together a proposal, on spec, I guess. I think it would be a ton of fun. However, it remains to be seen whether anyone else agrees. (My wife did, so that’s two…)

Even though there is plenty on TV these days, with the new season starting, I have the Breaking Bad blues. There’s nothing nearly that good. Nothing that makes me champ at the bit for the next episode.

Survivor is pretty good this season, especially after the most annoying player in history decided to quit. Again. The idea of pitting one tribe against another composed of their loved ones is brilliant, and breathes new life into the formula. Every victory means that a loved one is going home. Every vote means that someone goes to redemption island, where another loved one has to decide whether or not to change places. And, as with the most recent episode, you end up with situations where a husband and wife are going to be pitted against each other. True, they both could survive, but for how long? And they’re both strong competitors. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out.

The Bridge came to the end of the first season with a whimper. Lamest cliffhanger ever. Of course, when they made those episodes they probably didn’t know if they would be renewed, so the stakes are fairly low. I think they made a mistake in not having a self-contained season that wrapped everything up. The Swedish/Danish version ended much sooner in the story, to great effect. The whole drug tunnel subplot seems so borrowed from Weeds (especially with one of the Weeds actors on the show).

I dropped Once Upon a Time from the DVR. Couldn’t summon up any interest in it. Sons of Anarchy doubled down this week, just when I was starting to wonder whether it was worth continuing to watch. Are they trying too hard to follow the Breaking Bad formula by turning Jax into a villain? It seems that way. The Irish shooting scene was a surprise; the white supremacist scene was not. As parting words go, “I didn’t see that coming” was both self-evident and true. I thought Otto was going to kill himself. I’m not sorry to see that guy go, though. It was probably the only plot resolution to keep Clay unscathed.

Castle is plugging along with the new status quo, but it can only be a matter of time before Kate is back in New York for good. I had to laugh when Nick said, “He’s dead, Jim” to Brass on CSI, and this week’s howdunit was a pretty good caper, although I guessed some of the twists. Creepiest killers in a long time on Criminal Minds, and a decent twist on the overused twins trope. The lame fake-out with the imminent crash with a transport was not appreciated, though. Weak writing there. Ziva’s gone on NCIS, so maybe they can get back to business again. Hopefully Tony won’t mope around too long. I always like the interaction between Gibbs and Fornell, and it was especially funny that Gibbs had to shoot the FBI agent in the ass.

Is this the season when we finally find out who Red John is on The Mentalist? Lisbon wouldn’t listen to Patrick and now she’s in a fix. Two other characters aren’t going to be around by the end of the season, though it remains to be seen how their exits will be achieved. I’m continuing to like Elementary. There is absolutely no flirtation between the two characters, and I hope, hope, hope they will always resist that temptation. But the two characters find new ways to appreciate and challenge each other. The writing is decent in that respect. The whole P versus NP solution will bring down all encryption around the world McGuffin was a touch on the weak side, though.

I’ve been watching a series on Netflix called Top of the Lake. Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men plays a New Zealander who has returned home to visit her mother, who has cancer, when she gets called in to assist on a sensitive case: a 12-year girl is pregnant and, as the seven episodes progress, goes missing. Moss’s character, Robin, has a lot of history with the area, which causes her some problems. Holly Hunter is in it as the very spaced out leader of a group of battered women who have set up camp on a vacant hilltop, living out of transport containers. The show was co-created by Jane Campion (The Piano), and features lovely NZ settings, local lore (Robin’s mother’s partner has his face painted), and a dreamy, twisty plot. Moss does a decent accent, though I read somewhere that an Australian group pulled out of the project when they learned an American had been cast. I have just one episode left.

Last weekend we watched a French film called The Well-Digger’s Daughter, starring (and directed by) Daniel Auteuil, who we’ve seen in other things, including Jean de Florette. It’s a remake of a 1940s film about the widowed father of six daughters. The eldest daughter, who lived in Paris until her mother died, returns home to take care of the family and becomes pregnant. This is Provence on the eve of World War I, so it’s a scandal, of course, especially since the baby’s father is  a) the son of a wealthy local businessman and b) sent off to fight and goes missing, presumed dead. It’s a charming little movie, especially in the way it explores the vastly different social context of the time. The father (Auteuil) is constrained to behave in certain ways because of class expectations, even when it almost kills him emotionally to do so. All’s well that ends well.