Friday Night Lights - TV Series Review

A book that became a film that became a TV series. Friday Night Lights the TV Series is such a great show that I am now re-watching it as it has come to Netflix.

I watched it when it was first aired back in 2006 and tried to get my wife to watch it as well. She could not get over the camera/visual style that helped define and shape what the show was. So I watched this on the bus to work or when she was out. For a long time it was my favourite TV Show (but then I got a box set of the West Wing and that changed everything!).
It is shot in a documentary, free hand way that for me drew me into the action and into the world of characters. It's not all shaky and seems to follow the emotions and when it suits to get the closer shots of a scene.

While this is based around a High School (American) football team, not every episode contains actual football games and really does revolve around the lives of the characters in a small and highly pressurised community. It tracks the insane mentality that High School football coach can lose his job like a Premiership manager after a run of bad games.

The location of Dillon, Texas is football and that is all. It DNA is football and this is the reason for such a intense situations and why the story is fantastic all the way through.

From the very first episode, we see the fragility and expectations of the players trying to balance study, friends and football. Not being American, I have no idea how realistic the high school environment and football mentality really are, but it captivated me and keeps me wanting to watch more.

I have watched this show through about 3 times in its entirety, not always paying attention to each episode but always getting drawn into the world that it creates. I am a sucker for this genre of film and TV show. What many UK viewers might class as sappy American drama, the underdog story effect.

This example from Cool Runnings almost sums it up perfectly.

It's the fact I still get goose bumps and the sense of achievement that the characters are meant to be going through. The down by one point with 2 seconds to go cliche. You are drawn into each win and loss and feel for them every time. 

There are 5 seasons to this and while it does follow one team, it really follows a few characters and focuses on them through the show. Eric Taylor as played by Kyle Chandler and his family are arguably the main characters, the head coach of the team, and not wanting to spoil too much it's been off the air since 2011, he does not always stay in once place. It is the reasons though that make it interesting.

Saying that though it has made a few names like Taylor Kitsch, Micheal B. Jordan and Adrianne Palicki who have gone on to bigger and better ventures.

This is a great TV series that has heart, and that is what makes it so re-watchable. I think that it has a certain charm to it that makes you care for the people on screen. This is an example of where the film just could not deliver as much because of the time constraints. While this is based on the book that is based on true events, I am not sure when that starts to deviate and by how much. It is worth checking out if you Netflix, and it is one I am sure I will re-watch again one day when I have forgotten how much I enjoyed the 4th time around.

Being Ginger - Documentary - Film Review

I seem to be watching quite a few documentaries at the moment. That's not a bad thing, but it does then skew my recommended watching in Netflix to other documentaries.

This month I was suggested Being Ginger. A documentary created by Scott P. Harris and looks on the surface as a love story of what ladies actually would date a ginger man.

The set-up seem a little shallow at first as Scott tries to find the courage to talk to a random women under the guise of making a documentary. It develops quickly and the tone changes into a look into one mans life and self belief.

It takes you nicely on his journey and looks at how people get to the situation they are in. It looks at how our past shapes us even if we don't realise it later in life. Experiences that hurt us tend to be pushed down despite being major factors in how they shape us. It's only reflection can you see really how much they may have influenced you decisions.

Scott is adamant about not dating a ginger person, and interviews a few couples who are both red heads, but it is not until the 3rd act of the documentary where he travels to a major red head festival in Holland that he starts to question his own rules. The rules are there because of his own skewed notions and thoughts rather than that of the outside world.

He is helped on this journey by his friends who are also students at Edinburgh university. It is quite interesting at times to see their take on his history and what he should do trying to find love.

This is a fun little documentary that is touching, heart-warming and while having a serious reflection on one mans experiences serves to show that confidence comes from within and is driven by how much you want to expand your own self.

I really enjoyed the journey that Scott takes the viewer on and found it interesting to see how he screened multiple versions of the film from very short to where it finally ends up. It is interesting to watch the film develop within itself as well as watching Scotts journey.

It was the sort of documentary that inspires others. I wanted to grab a camera and start making a documentary too. The real question here is why not. It does not have any major research to start with and the documentaries evolution shows how you can build on what is a short film to a full blown documentary.

I would recommend this everyone, and if you don't have Netflix you can still watch it online for just a few pounds.

This has spawned another documentary (sort of sequel) to it called An American Ginger in Paris which was a Kickstarter project for Scott once Being Ginger became bigger. Through the first film he meets people that highlight France as being a ginger loving community, I expect this will follow him on the journey to find love and why France is that particular place to do it.

Ready Player One - Book Review

So I am jumping on a band wagon that is already well on the move. The novel is in pre-production to be a major Hollywood movie directed by Stephen Spielberg. It has a massive audience already and certainly won't need my help creating a buzz. However this blog is designed to talk about things I like and missed, so maybe, just maybe you did too!

So Ready Player One is set in the future. A place where resources are scarce, the real world is a stark place to live but with the virtual world of the OASIS we can be more than we are in real life. Our Avatars can be like who we really are or nothing like us. We are not limited by real world functions and constraints, magic (and not just movie magic) can happen.

The novel follows Wade AKA Parzival through his journey to find the secret prize hidden within the OASIS. A prize left as a will by the creator of the system. The prize is the system. Full control over the finances, direction and everything associated with the company that owns the system.

This novel had me gripped from the start to finish, and by then end where I would normally fall asleep reading a book at bedtime, I would stay awake and force my self to have to put it down. It was gripping, enjoyable and a fantastic mystery into the clues it lays out to the reader and the plans to get the hidden "egg".

Not wanting to spoil the novel I won't touch on too much detail, but the friendships that a formed, the risks that are taken are interesting well crafted and fun.

Wade is a true nobody living in the worst part of America at the worst point in history. His only salvation is the life he has in the OASIS, and his only friends are the few he has online (sounding familiar for this day and age?)

The mysterious recluse that is James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS dies leaving a handbook and a challenge to the world. This online world splits into factions and for 5 years after his death everyone is stumped by the clues left to start them off. Halliday was a big fan of geek, 80's culture and this novel serves as a wonderful memoir to that time. The classic references and nostalgia are painted perfectly but are being viewed from a more modern prespective. It is a very clever and well written idea, that allows those who also loved that time to immerse themselves once again. For others it just becomes part of the DNA of the book and does not leave you feeling excluded if you do not share the same level of love for the time. Ernest Cline is the author and through his writing you can see aspects of his love of all the subjects reflected in the characters. How they thrive with their friends talking for hours around old games, movies and comics. You know there are a few parts in this book lifted straight out of Clines own life, and they do say write what you know.

This novel was first published in 2011 (I said I was behind the curve on this one) and has won awards in 2011 and 2012 which I think it deserves. It won an award from the Young Adult Library Services Association, which makes it sound like a kids book and while many of the themes will touch many children's imaginations, it is also a great book for those of us who are thirty something and remember the original games and comics from the 80's.

Even if you are not a huge geek around the subjects of the book, the story does not rely on that and takes you on a fantastic adventure that I would suggest everyone reads. It is fun gripping and wonderfully enjoyable. If you have missed this, get a copy. You will not be disappointed, because while one of the greatest film makers of the time is going to be leading this film forward, as with any book to film conversion you really won't be able to capture some of what makes this book fantastic in a film. However great the film might end up being.

Read this now while the film is still in pre-production, you won't regret it!

Best of Enemies - Documentary - Film Review

Documentaries can be seen as a dirty word. It can sometimes put people off watching as they see them as boring, tired or dull. This I think stems from being made to watch a documentary with your parents on a Saturday night when you are 10 years old, or those documentaries you are made to watch in Geography class on tidal erosion.  I don't mean to pick on Geography exactly and actually programs produced these days like Planet Earth from the BBC, tend to make the subject visually stunning, enthralling to watch and flies in the face of the VHS tape that we were made to watch in 1983 recorded from the OU.

This week I found on Netflix (UK) a documentary called the Best of Enemies. I had never heard of it, and had no real reason to want to watch it, but that is the joy of Netflix these days you can just take a punt on a program and see what you think. I loved it. It is a fantastic documentary and well worth a watch. 

It revolves around events that are taking place during the 1968 US Presidential debate. A war in TV news in taking place and CBS news is near the bottom (well 3rd) in the pile of the main players at that time. They decided to change the once traditional format to that of a debate. Not between the politicians but commentators from either side of the debate.

Gore Vidal from the left and William F. Buckley from the right. When I heard the names (being the age I am), I recognised Gore Vidal but had no idea why. I had never heard of Buckley before and knew little about either persons personalities or politics.

It was an explosive time in the US party politics system with the Vietnam war in play causing massive tensions between protesters, police and politicians.

The documentary does well to provide a background to the situation and the people who were making the most waves in politics. It paints the picture of each debate on a daily basis and how they were interacting to the events of the day. From what we see, the debates, like many panels on news programs today, was much shorter than people may have wanted. It had argument and two polarizing characters that bred the controversy the channel needed for ratings. Gore Vidal was everything William F. Buckley loathed in the republicans and Vidal was as close to the anti-Christ as Buckley could imagine.

This story is shown beautifully through the archive footage; as well as interviews from friends, colleagues or commentators from the time. It showed how CBS changed the face of reporting for this cultural US event and how the TV debate grew into a antagonistic forum because it was so well received. 

The documentary develops each character and gives the viewer an insight into who they were and why they were so diametrically opposed. It takes you through the the event and why this shift in television news made such an impact at this time in broadcast journalism.

From my own personal politics, I quickly chose a side to support for the debates (as many would have done at the time) and when the debates reach their tipping point, I found the insults hilarious in their absurdness for what we hear today. What was said can not be forgiven, even back in 1968, and the documentary explores the later ramifications of these events but the way some of the speech is phrased reminds me now of a Michael McIntyre stand up routine.

When Buckley attacks Vidal as a response to being called a Nazi, he threaten to sock him in the face, and he would stay plastered (watch the documentary for the full context and quotation). It was this that strangely dated the documentary (aside for the quality of the archive footage) the most. The language was more intellectual and less dumbed down for the masses.

It is a very well produced and interesting documentary, it may not be the most riveting television for a 10 year olds Saturday night television (but I guess that will depend on the 10 year old), but now I am a little older and wiser than I was at 10, the subject matter while nearly completely irrelevant to me (not a US voter) it shows how politics can be made into a very interesting subject and one that can create such divisions in people.