The Good Guys "Pilot": Poncherello Called...

"I wish to look like Erik Estrada"

A suggested template for plastic surgery serves as a sort of meta statement on The Good Guys as a whole. Matt Nix (Burn Notice) is obviously inspired by 1980s Cop series, with Bradley Whitford (and his mustache) as the cop stuck in that decade. Two problems present themselves as a result. First is it's too hard to see Whitford, despite the impressive mustache, as a conservative out of time cop, given his previous roles. Second problem is that the cop series from the 80's weren't really that good. Fun to remember, though, which makes me think Nix might need to play up the cheese factor a bit more.

Playlist: The Good Guys - Episode 1.01
"I Fought the Law" - The Clash
"You Sexy Thing" - Hot Chocolate
Superstar - The Isley Brothers
"She Does" - Locksley
"20th Century Boy" - T. Rex
"The Stroke" - Billy Squire
"Thunderstruck" - AC/DC
"Black Betty" - Ram Jam (in version sent out to critics, but didn't make the broadcast preview version)

Chuck vs the Nacho Sampler: Mish with the Manoosh

Fresh off last week's solo "mish," the evolution from Geek to Spy again moves quickly* this week for Chuck. For an episode that is still really meant to set up future episodes, there was a lot of fun to be had, and I keep thinking how much I enjoyed this episode, and yet it's the lesser of the first six we've seen in the show's third season.

*The opening scene with flashback to the pilot, while initially a setup for Kristen Kreuk's entrance (to Datarock's "Amarillion"), was a great illustration of just how far Chuck (and, for that matter, Chuck) has come.

Acting like a parallel to season one highlight "Chuck vs. the Sandworm," "Nacho Sampler" not only has Chuck helping a fellow geek, Manoosh (played by aerospace engineer, standup comedian, end fellow Seattle native Fahim Anwar), but also revisiting similar geek cultural touchstones (Battlestar Galactica, Y: The Last Man). In the end, though, Chuck is a long ways from season one, perhaps too far from it.

Musically, besides the Datarock opening, hearing my old karaoke stand-by "Rock the Casbah" backing (the hilarious) Weap-Con was delightfully reminiscent of the Clash's video for it. Also noticed some of Tim Jones' score harkened back to "Chuck vs the Cougars," the Tangerine Dream-like ominous bits that semed like an homage to Risky Business.

Playlist: Chuck - Ep3.06
1. "Amarillion" - Datarock
2. "Danny Trejo" (feat. Niña Dios)" - Plastillina Mosh
3. "Merrymaking at My Place" - Calvin Harris
4. "Rock the Casbah" - The Clash
5. "40 Day Dream" - Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros

Previous: Chuck vs First Class

Rescue Me - "Jimmy": Ghost in the Machine

Four episodes in, I can safely say Rescue Me is now better than it's been since since season one, which is high praise indeed. It's no secret that the key has been getting back to it's roots, which begins and ends with 9/11.

Lou scribbling down 36 pages after seeing 3.5 seconds of footage that fateful day works much like a metaphor for the series. The series had been floating in the past couple seasons, occasionally going back to the well, but never looking very long at it's ultimate source of power. After deciding to get back to the post 9/11 storyline, the pages and episodes just flew, so much that this season has nearly twice the number of episodes (22) and there's another 18 slated for a sixth season. The series isn't just revisiting 9/11, but also bringing into the plot some discussion on the conspiracy theories that Daniel Sunyati (Franco) apparently espouses in real life. When Tommy (Denis Leary) sees his cousin Jimmy in the footage, very much alive after the first tower fell (where he was supposed to have perished,) signals the series is about to re-open its own investigation of 9/11.

That whole final sequence was backed by The Clash's "Guns of Brixton," which is significant in that the song was a prelude to the race riots in Brixton. The song's lyrics are a challenge to authority, the neighborhoods not accepting police authority, and it wasn't that long after the song was released that the riots happened. That kind of makes the song a poor man's version of the Stones' "Gimme Shelter," a song that's used in film and tv to signal that sh*t is about to get real.

Song: "Guns of Brixton" - The Clash

Line of the night: "It's the law of nature, you can't have two Walter Matthaus and no Jack Lemon."

Previously: Yankees vs Red Sox (Rescue Me season four finale - episode 4.14)

Succession

Every season on The Wire, we brace ourselves for the loss of a favorite character. Wallace, D'Angelo, Stringer Bell and Bodie have all been eulogized fondly, and now we can add Prop Joe to that long list of great characters we'll miss. Marlo is now successor as king of the Baltimore drug trade, but you'd have a hard time knowing it looking at his face upon taking the crown. He seemed more intrigued with Prop Joe's execution, with a look only needed a raised eyebrow to achieve pure Spock-like detachment, as he, like in many a karate film, kills his master -- or in this case, has Chris-son do it. Fitting then, that the chillingly emotionless Marlo comes as close to empathy as we've seen just a few seconds prior, easing poor Joe into taking Marlo's idea of severance calmly:

Close your eyes, it won't hurt none. Yeah... there now, Joe, relax... breathe easy.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Burrell is getting a much nicer severance -- a new 4-figure salary and a nice pension to boot -- all so he'll also quietly go into that good night, and not scorch the earth -- and his successor Daniels -- behind him. "Close your eyes, Ervin, this should take the sting off." If the connection of successors wasn't obvious enough, we learn Prop Joe was a year behind Ervin at Dunbar. Says Joe, "he was in the Glee club" -- I just love the way Robert Chew delivers this line, emphasizing the word 'glee' as if it's all you need to know about Burrell. Unlike Marlo, though, Daniels lets loose a smile upon taking a seat behind his new office. But, like Marlo, we know he needs to watch his back, because the skeleton in his closet isn't as buried as he would like to think. All of ex-Mayor Royce's old collective -- including the inimitable Senator Clay Davis -- seem to still have some life in them yet, thanks to the dossier on Daniels' dirty Eastern District days.

The third 'transition' continues at The Sun as outgoing cop reporter Twigg hands the reigns to rookie Alma. Twigg gets in his last scoop and byline, but it serves more of a reminder of what they'll be missing. This subplot still feels pretty small compared to all the great goings on elsewhere, but I still trust that David Simon has a 'grand story' to tell here and it's just merely slumming in the margins right now.

But hold on a minute... Omar's back in town. It's a testament to the power of this episode that our favorite gay stick-up artist doesn't get mentioned until now. His entrance is backed by some fine DC Go-Go music from Trouble Funk, which naturally means that we are in the presence of Slim Charles, played by Go-Go singer/rapper Anwan Glover (Backyard Band,) who continues to play the hell out of his muscle character. Omar has his sights set now on an unsuspecting Michael, which has me worried for poor poor Dukie. Michael has taken him out of the game, and we know that move doesn't have a good track record in this series.

Elsewhere, it's always nice to hear The Clash, and in it's context here, it serves as a little commentary the once promising, now tragic relationship between McNulty and Beadie*:

You said you love me and thats a fact
Then you left me, said you felt trapped
Well some things you can explain away
But my heartaches in me till this day

Playlist: The Wire - Episode 5.04
1. "What You Know About Baltimore" - Ogun - BPD altercation on Michael's corner
2. "Baby, I'm Yours" - Barbara Lewis - Prop Joe gets flowers for Butchie's funeral
3. "Drop The Bomb" - Trouble Funk - Omar checks in on Slim Charles
4. "Train In Vain" - The Clash - McNulty at the bar
5. "Street Legendz" - Shortie - Omar meets up with Donnie
HBO's track and scene info

*Congratulations to Amy Ryan for her Oscar nomination (Best Supporting Actress - Gone Baby Gone). Seeing her again now in such a small, and stiffly written scene felt strange given her recent jump in exposure.

Previously: Desperation and Transformation (Episode 5.03)

Soundtracking Anderson: The Royal Tenenbaums

If Rushmore bent time and space with music from the British Invasion, Wes Anderson's third film pushes the method to the extreme of near timelessness using music, costume and prop design to create a sort of cartoon version of Manhattan. For The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson moved on to baroque rock from the early seventies, helping to create a feeling of melancholy throughout the film, and cementing the label of 'melancomic' to Anderson's work (like it's meaning, this made-up label is both tragic and a bit humorous).

The first song that Anderson had in his head before sitting down to write was a Jackson Browne cover of "These Days" by Warhol Superstar Nico and he wrote his first scene with that in mind: Margo (Gwyneth Paltrow) getting off the Green Line Bus in slow motion (video). Nico's sad and beautiful voice helps color in Margo as much as the raccoon eyeliner that they share.

The opening montage that introduces the characters (expertly voiced by Alec Baldwin) is done to the tune of "Hey Jude" (see video,) which was recorded at the last minute by score scribe Mark Mothersbaugh and his offshoot Mutato Muzika Orchestra. Anderson originally meant to have The Beatles original version open the film (and close it with "I'm Looking Through You,") but circumstances forced their hand to record another version (EW, 12/04). Elliott Smith was approached initially, but he wasn't in any shape to do so at the time, as he was already on a downward spiral that would eventually end with him taking his own life just two years later. Eerily, the song he did provide, "Needle in the Hay," was used prophetically as the backdrop for Richie's attempted suicide (video). That co-writer Owen Wilson had a hand in writing the scene makes it doubly eerie. Continuing on the musical suicide tour of RT, when Richie (Luke Wilson) gets out of the hospital and takes the bus home, it's to Nick Drake's "Fly". Drake's upbeat song is meant to signify a sort of rebirth, but it's hard to ignore the fact that this singer took his own life as well.

This scene is then followed by back-to-back tracks from The Rolling Stones, backing the drama between Richie and Margo. They confess their love to one another to "She Smiled Sweetly," and then Margo says it has to be a secret love and leaves as "Ruby Tuesday" raises in volume on the "goodbye" chorus. This, and a few other RT scenes, I believe mark the first time Anderson uses diegetic music of any significance. The songs play on a turntable, and exist in the characters' world, whereas nearly all the music in his prior work was non-diegetic in nature. This diegetic use of music is much harder to do (see the The Sopranos,) and shows Anderson's growth working with Randall Poster on these films (and on his next film, he would take it to another extreme). Another use of this is The Clash's "Rock the Casbah," playing on a stereo for an Eli (Owen Wilson) drug deal (video). The Clash appeared earlier with Eli as well, as when he buys some drugs while out with Margo you hear "Police and Thieves." Anderson seems to associate punk rock with illicit behavior, as he also uses The Ramones' "Judy is a Punk" as a backdrop to the montage of Margo's secret past. Contrasted with the baroque sounds of the rest of the soundtrack, it's meant to be a little jarring.

If Eli Cash is The Clash (why am I just now noticing Cash=Clash?) then I guess Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) is Bob Dylan. Dylan's "Wigwam" sets the mood for when he meets his grandkids for the first time ("no we didn't" - see video,) and Dylan's theme score Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid helps escort Royal out the door after his ruse has been discovered. And I haven't even brought up the scene of joyful rebellion where Royal and his grandkids raise some hell to Paul Simon's "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" (video). There's really no scene that isn't carefully scored, so that each moment is somehow more precious then the next, which initially is the best thing about the film. But together, much like this post I'm writing, it all feels a bit claustrophobic, and that really is the major flaw in this otherwise beautiful, sad, funny film.

Playlist: Rssmbld Sndtrck - The Royal Tenenbaums
1. "Hey Jude" - The Mutato Muzika Orchestra (video)
2. "String Quartet In F Major (2nd Movement) (Ravel)" - Ysaye Quartet
3. "Sonata For Cello and Piano In F Minor (Enescu)" - The Mutato Muzika Orchestra
4. "Look At Me" - John Lennon - Chas gets his children ready for bed on his first night back home
5. "Christmas Time Is Here (Instrumental)" - Vince Guaraldi - Margot is leaving home / Royal tries to reconcile with Margot in the ice cream shop
6. "These Days" - Nico - Richie is picked up by Margot, by way of the green line bus (video)
7. "Police & Thieves" - The Clash - Eli and Margot visit a drug dealer and discuss Richie
8. "Wigwam" - Bob Dylan - Ethyl and Henry discuss their relationship / Royal meets his grandsons (video)
9. "Gymnopedie No. 1" - Erik Satie
10. "Lullabye" - Emitt Rhodes - Chas confronts Richie in his tent (video)
11. "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" - Paul Simon - Royal takes his grandsons out to raise hell (video)
12. "Main Title Theme (Billy)" - Bob Dylan - Royal leaves the house
13. "Judy Is A Punk" - The Ramones - The Margot private investigator montage
14. "Needle In The Hay" - Elliott Smith - Richie attempts to commit suicide (video)
15. "Fly" - Nick Drake - Richie escapes from the hospital, sneaks back into house (video)
16. "She Smiled Sweetly" - The Rolling Stones - Margot and Richie talk in the tent (video)
17. "Ruby Tuesday" - The Rolling Stones - Margo leaves
18. "Stephanie Says" - The Velvet Underground - Richie is visited by Mordecai* on the roof of the hotel
19. "Rock The Casbah" - The Clash - Royal and Richie try to get Eli some help (video)
20. "Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal)" - Vince Guaraldi
21. "The Fairest Of The Seasons" - Nico - prologue, announcement of Royal's death
22. "Everyone" - Van Morrison - Royal funeral, credits
Score by Mark Mothersbaugh

More: Aside from Mothersbaugh and his score, the other artist who ties the musical theme together goes mostly uncredited, and that's John Cale. He played in Velvet Underground ("Stephanie Says") and played on both Nico tracks as well as "Fly" by Nick Drake.

*The original hawk used to play Mordecai was captured during shooting and held for ransom - production could not wait for him to be returned which is the reason that the bird that appears later in the movie has “more white feathers” - it’s a different bird

Previously: Bottle Rocket, Rushmore

tags: music, film, soundtrack, wes anderson, mark mothersbaugh, rolling stones, the clash, royal tenenbaums, elliott smith, nico, playlist