Man, I am really enjoying the new FX series Justified. It’s based loosely on an Elmore Leonard short story and it manages to actually feel like Leonard is writing it. That’s probably because Leonard is producing it. Moma Leonard didn’t raise no idgits.
It’s reminding me why I loved reading Elmore Leonard so much. I actually cut myself off from Elmore Leonard years ago. I used to have this rule with books. If I had read twenty novels by the same author, I figured it was time to move on. Plus, you read that much by one person and it starts to lose its appeal. You start noticing characters and plot devices being repeated and it makes the stories seem too formulaic. Back then I thought if I really wanted to revisit an author, I would wait until I was an old man and then I would pick them up again. Well, I am sort of an old man now. I mean, the current me doesn’t think I am. But the younger me who made that rule would definitely call me old. So maybe I can pick up some Elmore Leonard again.
By the way, the Spam Comment of the Week Award goes to the d-bag who left this one: No matter what others say, I think it is still interesting and useful maybe necessary to improve some minor things. I was just impressed that it wasn’t linked to a penis enlargement ad.
So – is this, like, a TV series of Justin Timberlake’s album where he gets into all sort of scrapes with crazy rappers and the like and resolves the moral dilemmas with song and dance? Written by Leonard? Hot stuff, surely to God.
I’M KIDDING!
We have FX over here, but we are, of course, treated with a selective hand and have yet to receive this one. The cultural pattern was, as I remember from years gone by, that we (being the land of the BBC) would make the quality TV and you would make the A-Team (more quality TV, just – well, different).
Things have changed, however, and now we make Holby City (popularly referred to as Holby Shitty) and you make all the good stuff. I’m fine with that, because as long as someone is making good TV then I’m getting my cultural fix and the BBC can go set itself on fire – who really cares about them anymore anyway, they’re all a bunch of thick-rimmed-glasses-wearing cnuts anyway.
What really pisses me off, though, I mean REALLY (I’m just buying time here while I try to remember what the fuck I was ranting about – oh yeah that’s it) pisses me off is that not only do we now make shit TV, but we get treated like fucking morons – US, THE BRITISH – and we only get spoon fed the leftovers or the REALLY big hits. Anything that might be a little outside the narrow demographic of tea-sipping, Daily Mail reading, knee-jerk, middle age cuntery that we all apparently are over here, anything that doesn’t wed itself to that cultural fantasy is ignored.
So, thank you for bringing Justified to our attention, but, being a tea drinking, dull witted bastard that is clearly alarmed and distressed by anything that isn’t really obvious and straightforward American TV I won’t be allowed to watch this show.
Clearly everything I’ve just written is bullshit as we get some great shows otherwise I wouldn’t know how great American TV is, but there are a lot of shows we don’t get that we should and, hey, why stop a good rant.
What’s that? Justified is on next week. You can all fuck off.
Funnily enough I’m working on a project at the moment and we’re really nervous about approaching the BBC or (shudder) ITV as we know they’re just going to fuck it up. Do you think HBO are open to submissions? (I love HBO, I want to have its babies).
I’ve worn myself out now, I’m going to have a little nap.
That Monty Python guy has a good show.
Monty can fuck off too