So politics has brought me back to this blog. I have not given it up, just trying to earn a living like the rest of us. More regular posts in the new year.
But for now, I am intrigued by the online firestorm surrounding this particular JLP ad. I don’t know what to make of it. Not the ad. The reaction. The culture of our political campaigning is to go for personal attack as opposed to reasoned debate. Does this ad mark a step change in this tendency?
One view is that that most of the JLP ads extolling the competence of the government have people speaking standard English, while those lambasting Mrs. Simpson Miller have people speaking an outrageous brand of patois.
Another view is that this is how Mrs. Simpson Miller has conducted herself, so why are people getting upset?
Declare your allegiance (or like me lack thereof) and tell me your view!
What a season! It has had one the best story arcs in the history of the show. We got the full backstory on Emily Prentiss. She was an Interpol agent who took down a dangerous Irish terrorist named Ian Doyle. This man is terrifying in his relentlessness. He killed all the agents involved in his downfall (and internment in a secret North Korean labour camp) and then sent Emily a love note saying he was going to kill her too. She did not wait, she took the fight to him. That’s why I love this girl! Unfortunately she got severely injured and Hotch and J.J. told the team she was dead. This a move obviously designed to protect her as Doyle escaped the FBI dragnet and is still at large. And who knows if Prentiss will be back.
In Out of the Light, the penultimate episode of the season, Director Strauss grills Agent Hotchner about the effectiveness of his team. Again. A boss you would not like to have. In what must have been a shock, she agrees with Hotch’s assessment and tells him she is going on leave. The only thing I could think is that she must be gravely ill. She was tight-lipped about her reasons for taking time off.
I wonder if the season finale cap top the Prentiss storyline? It airs May 4th at 8pm on CBS.
Now that Agent Stahl got capped, is Mags Bennett the evilest woman on TV?
Justified is FX’s most successful show since The Shield. There are several reasons for this: powerful characters, great storylines and provocative moral dilemmas are chief among them. Justified is an entertaining look at Appalachian culture. A side of America you don’t often see shown in an insightful way. In addition, it cannot hurt that it is based on a short story my Elmore Leonard. If you like crime fiction, check out his work. Justified follows a long series of successful shows which, like Leonard’s work, deal with crime and the complexities of law enforcement. Think the aforementioned The Shield, but also Sons of Anarchy.
It is the story of a cool, but conflicted lawman Raylan Givens. He tries to enforce the law while dealing with the clans in the area, his father who is a criminal, romance his not-quite-girlfriend Winona and deal with his boss who often expresses disappointment with him. And he is very handy with his ‘side arm’, which if he pulls, he ‘intends to kill.’ It is very entertaining to watch.
In Brother’s Keeper (ep. 9), Mags is seemingly torn up not that her son has been killed by Raylan, but that she may never see Loretta again. And yeah, Loretta knows it was Mags who killed her father. Mags is not a small time dealer, she is just as much as a drug Baron as Pablo Escobar. She controls cops (including another one of her sons who is a sheriff!), controls land owners and makes deals with other big time criminals. She is absolutely ruthless. In this episode Mags pretends to defend the interests of her county in a deal with a powerful mining company. What she was really doing was selling them all out for a much higher price. Read the rest of this entry »
A tweet questioning the necessity of Black History Month
All educated Negroes suffer from a kind of slavery in many ways far more subversive of the real welfare of the race than the ancient physical fetters. The slavery of the mind is far more destructive than that of the body. But such is the weakness and imperfection of human nature that many of those who bravely fought to remove the shackles from the body of the Negro transfer them to his mind.
- Edward Wilmot Blyden
Black history is so much more than history with black people in it. I would have thought the individual making the comment, being of such high education, would have recognised this.
Ask yourself. How much do everyday people know about our history and culture? People whose are not especially motivated, or whose don’t have a job that concerns these things know practically nothing about Black History – whether of Africans in Jamaica or on the continent. The dominant narrative concerns us as slaves. And maybe Nanny catching a bullet in her backside.
Do you think these omissions, or distorted representations are accidental? Whose history is this really?
The BAU chase a killer in a gated community in ‘What Happens At Home…’
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Criminal Minds is one of my favourite TV shows. But since the season finales of Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy and Justified, I have not been that enthused about TV. I have not been keeping up with Season 6 until very recently when I decided to watch a slew of episodes in a couple of sittings. I remembered why I love this show:
The storyline frequently develops in a way you don’t expect it to.
The team members respect and have a deep understanding of each other.
The leaders take tough and unpopular decisions when they deem it necessary to achieve their objectives. Look at the showdown between Rossi and Director Strauss in ’25 To Life’ (episode 11)!
The one big change of this season is that J.J. is gone (episode 2). I am not sure what prompted this change. There are all kinds rumours ranging from financial considerations to sexism. The small saving grace from what I think is a poor call by the responsible people at CBS, is that the replacement, Agent Ashley Seaver, has a very interesting background. Her father was a serial killer. Talk about unique insight. Read the rest of this entry »
