Cinemonkey

They Spy

Possibly the last of the "gimmick" detective stories for the time being, Person of Interest falls in the tradition of crime shows failed (Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Raines) and successful (Monk, Psych) in which there is an odd detective paired with someone who is grounded in some form of reality. In this case it is Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) and Mr. Reese (Jim Caviezel). A variation on Rex Stout's inert Nero Wolfe and and his proxy man-of-action Archie Goodwin, Mr. Finch is the brain and Mr. Reese the brawn. We learn that Mr. Finch once designed an elaborate computer set up that tracks potential terrorists. Though this "minority report" approach to crime passes without much comment, Mr. Finch realizes that his program can also anticipate ordinary crimes-to-be. Since the government that hired him isn't so much interested in ordinary street crime, Mr. Finch has enlisted the aid of Mr. Reese to hit the pavement and spy on these ordinary citizens and stop crime. The only hitch is that Mr. Finch isn't sure if the names spat out by the computer designate the victim or the perpetrator of a crime.

 

 

After three episodes, the subjects of their scrutiny have proven to be a bad guy, a good guy, and someone in between. The series has also established that there are murky moments from the main duo's pasts that will receive slow revelation, if the series lasts the next seven weeks. Mr. Reese has a back story of guilt and repression; Mr. Finch has certain disabilities that haven't been explained, impediments absent when he is shown in flashback.

Person of Interest is the brain child of Jonathan Nolan, who wrote his brother Christopher's film Memento. Both share an interest in surveillance. Christopher's first film was the little-seen feature Following, about a writer who follows random people on the street only to be ensnared in a criminal enterprise, but it might as well have been written by Jonathan, who contributed to some of his brother's other films, most of them concerned with spying and the dominance of one person over another. But unlike The Dark Knight Returns, this TV series thus far hasn't raised any ethical issues about the nature of surveillance, especially as conducted by a private citizen in odd circumstances.

Jim Caviezel is surprisingly effective as a Equalizer type guy, and Michael Emerson brings some of his mysterious Ben Linus-Lost mojo to this equally peculiar role. As per action figures on the small screen Mr. Caviezel never smiles and in fact never really moves his face much at all. It is a death mask, with the death erupting in his foes. For Mr. Finch, Mr. Emerson's unusual line delivery and sense of anguished concern as a shield against ungainly emotion comports well with the character. 

What Person of Interest has going for it most so far is beautiful urban photography byTeodoro Maniaci. Otherwise it hasn't worked out some of its kinks yet and is only beginning to explore the backgrounds of its two central characters. Aside from that, the procedural crime stories that form the bulk of each episode are conventional tales with some small twists that keep the viewer off guard. What's most interesting is how the show is of a piece with the Nolans' work on the big screen.

Note as of Tuesday, 16 January, 2012: Person improved greatly with time, broke out of a repetitive funk by starting to lighten up on Reese's bad cop ally and started to incorporate a police detective dogging their trail. Episodes before the late holiday break were highly effective and got back into action last week with sure footed effects.

TV: A New All-Movie Network

I wanted to bring readers' attention to a new broadcast channel I've stumbled upon. It's called This, or ThisTV, and I have no idea where the channel calls home or who is involved in creating it. I do notice that the promoters love puns on the word "this." A typical self-promotional spot will include, "This is very cool," and other puns, so that at times you feel trapped in an Abbott and Costello routine. But the programers make interesting choices within their limited means.

I came upon the channel two or three weeks ago on a weekend when I converted my iMac into a television via EyeTV, which to my surprise receives the new digital feed. In any case, in my town, Portland, Oregon, the digital end of the spectrum sends out two local NBC affiliates (though one is a weather channel), four PBS feeds (though one is the local radio station's audio over a slide show of seven numbingly rotated Oregon landscape pix), and about eight religious channels. ThisTV, the channel, is broadcast as the secondary feed of the ABC affiliate, and it must have gone on air the same day I activated my new set up. It seems new.

A possible website was not live the last time I looked so there's no info there, but I did find "this" programing guide. What I did glean from dropping in on the station over a few weeks was that the station appears to own a huge package of MGM-Orion-UA movies and TV shows. Within these limitations, the programers do some interesting things. For example, Cotton Comes to Harlem was followed by Across 110th Street, as if Quentin Tarantino were in the booth. The Poitier drama Pressure Point was followed by the racially-themed noir Odds Against Tomorrow. Alice's Restaurant was followed by Hair. One Saturday This offered three beach party movies in a row (well, the third was a ski party movie, but it did have Frankie Avalon in it, with a cameo by James Brown trying to dance in a space the size of a bungalow's foyer). Another Saturday was a westerns day, so the schedule included Support Your Local Sherif, Hawks's Red River, Man with the Gun (with Robert Mitchum, music by Alex North), Sam Whiskey, and The Scalphunters. The next day was war movies day. This has also shown two Ossie Davis movies in a row and two William Schallert films on the same day, no doubt unintentional mini-festivals.

Late one night, when I woke up with a touch of insomnia, the channel was airing the old The Outer Limits (which is why I think the channel is brand new ... the first episode that aired was the first in the series), Mr. Ed, and The Patti Duke Show, followed by early morning broadcasts of some shrill old '70s or '80s cartoon shows like the Paddington Bears.

This all may sound good but a problem with the station is that there are lots and lots and lots of commercial breaks with a limited, repetition-injury-enducing number of ads and PSAs. Worse, the movies are truncated, panned and scanned, and censored. And they show the same movies over and over again. I also have a feeling that though some of the movies aired are good, the programmers think they are all bad, as if they are dealing with a pile of junk only the unemployed and meth addicts would watch. Partially, the programers are right about their product. I've sat through some truly bad films on This: a third rate gumball rally film called Safari 3000 with David Caradine, Stockard Channing, and Christopher Lee; a bad Australian "thriller" with Sam Elliott as a private eye; a blonde-dyed Michael Madsen at his mannered worst in an incoherent drive-in type movie called Dead Connection; and a somnambulistic Burt Reynolds in Malone (there are a lot of Burt Reynolds movies on This).

Those of us without cable or satellite are the lowest of the low as far as broadcasters are concerned. Our movies are bleeped and laden with advertising. And what advertising! This, like the local Fox affiliate during the day, offers up endless ads for gouging technical schools, storage devices, and health treatments, commercials that are all loud and frequent. This is not the ideal way to view old movies, especially if there is a video store just down the street. However, if you only have television from the air and don't mind having truncated movies selected for you in sometimes interesting combinations, This is adequate as a free version of AMC.

[This text originally appeared in a slightly different form as a posting on the Mobius Home Video Forum. Kenneth Warner wrote in to say that, "MGM co-owns ThisTV, actually, with Weigel (which owns a number of indy stations in the Midwest)."]

Recuillement: Adventures in Paradise

Most people probably came to James A. Michener from his massive, exhausting books, or through the musical South Pacific. But as a child of the '50s my introduction to his oeuvre came via television.

Oh, to be in the living room once again with all the family when at 9 pm of a Sunday night, ABC slipped into a dream state and Adventures in Paradise began. Though the series lasted only three seasons, it made an impression on all who saw it, for the show carried the viewer out of the humdrum workaday world and into exotic locales.

AiP is one of my first television memories My parents watched it faithfully, and I can still remember, as a young lad, being fascinated with the palm trees, the high seas, and the Polynesian women whom the show's hero, Captain Adam Troy, invariably encountered. The theme song is still with me to this day.

Adventures in Paradise is based on a concept by Michener, but derived from the same military experiences that also formed the basis for the musical. In fact, AiP creates something of a line of demarcation for Michener's works. Michener's earlier novels are fresher, born of actual experience and observed reality, so much different from later "encyclopedic" Michener. Though admirable, his massive later fictions are born of research rather than observation.

The premise of the series was simplicity itself. Adam Troy (the cosmically beautiful McKay) was an American Korean War veteran who stayed on in the Pacific after the war. As freelance captain of the schooner "Tiki", Troy drifted from adventure to adventure while carrying passengers and cargo anywhere from Hong Kong to Pitcairn Island. His original partner was Chinese-American Oliver Lee, and he was assisted by first mates Clay Baker and later Chris Parker.

The late Gardner McKay was the son of Deane McKay, an ad executive, and Catherine. He was raised in New York and Paris. He attended Cornell University two years, but left when his father died. He worked in advertising for six months but found that he could not stand it. At age 20, he became a

sculptor and had a piece displayed in the Museum of Modern Art. In 1959, he was spotted by a Hollywood producer who convinced him to audition for Adventures in Paradise. When the series was cancelled after three seasons, McKay decided he really did not like the celebrity spotlight and, like his character, proceeded to roam the world. He hiked in the Amazon, rode camels in Egypt, and crewed on Caribbean yachts. Finally, in 1980 he met Madeleine Madigan, who became his wife.

The artistic power of Michener is infectious. Once the life long bachelor had settled down he decided to become a writer. He wrote a suspense novel, called Toyer, and was the drama critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner from 1979 to 1981. Like Richard Chamberlain, Raymond Burr, and Jack Lord, he retired to Hawaii, where he died in 2001.

His real legacy, of course, will remain Adam Troy. But who can forget the many guest stars who graced the show! From Joan Blondell in the series's first episode, "The Forbidden Sea" in September 1959 to Ray Walston in "A Bride for the Captain, " in 1961, a cavalcade of stars graced the series. Also on hand were Ricardo Montalban in "The Derelict," Carroll O'Connor in "Hong Kong Island," Teresa Wright in "The Pit of Silence, Lon Chaney Jr. and Kurt Kasznar in "The Black Pearl," Gladys Cooper in "Paradise Lost," Simon Oakland, Suzanne Pleshette, Anna May Wong, and Paulette Goddard in "The Lady From South Chicago," Julie London in "Mission to Manila," Eva Gabor in "Peril at Pitcairn," Kim Hunter and Elaine Stritch in "Haunted," Albert Salmi and Alexis Smith in "Somewhere South of Suva," Viveca Lindfors in "Castaways," Brando's wife Anna Kashfi in "The Archer's Ring," Martin Landau and Herbert Marshall in "Nightmare on Napuka," Lawrence Tierney in "Walk Through the Night," Dan Duryea and Gloria Vanderbilt in "Judith," Vincent Price in "The Color of Venom," Yvonne de Carlo in "Isle of Eden," Fay Bainter in "Prisoner in Paradise," Alf Kjellin and Herbert Marshall in "There Is an Island," Claude Akins in "The Amazon," Gena Rowlands in "The Death-Divers," Julie Newmar in "Open for Diving," William Shatner in "Once Around the Circuit," Agnes Moorehead in "The Krishmen," Barbara Steele in "Daughter of Illusion," Inger Stevens in "Angel of Death," Hans Conreid in "The Jonah Stone," Cecil Kellaway and Jessie Royce Landis in "A Touch of Genius," Dick York in "The Reluctant Hero," Rita Moreno in "Vendetta," David Janssen in "Show Me a Hero," and Tuesday Weld in "The Velvet Trap." How often have so many given so much to something so little? Michener should have been proud.

This essay originally appeared in Black Lamb in 2003 as part of a joke issue.