An afternoon with nothing to do, and quite a while since I've sounded out around here. So let's get started:First off, a big event is coming up this weekend at my church The Crossing: our monthly Open Mike Night, hosted by my brother Tim (a musician on the rise, trust me!), featuring the fabulous talent of our church members or anyone who has an itch to perform (singing, acting, poetry reading, etc.). All acts must be family-friendly, but not necessarily religious oriented. Here in Columbus, Indiana, the show will kick off this Friday at 7:00 PM at The Crossing in the Roviar Building, Second Floor, 316 12th Str., in the Teen Room. Dee and I have something very special planned during our set, and we're just dying to show off.
Trying to get my near-to-capacity DVR harddrive cleared off, which is very hard to do during "Sweeps Month", as some cockamammie series or another pops up out of nowhere. But there are some really great shows that have caught my eye this season:
For those out of the loop, the American series (as in the British version) revolves around three Boston roommates: Aidan McCollin (Smallville's Sam Witwer), a male nurse who is also a vampire, Josh Levison (Superman Returns' Sam Huntington), a neurotic Jewish werewolf working as a hospital orderly, and Meaghan Rath as Sally Malik, a ghost who haunts the house that Aidan and Josh have leased from the man who murdered her. Despite the pressures of their current conditions and those of the secret world of the supernatural, the three are determined to cope by living as normal lives as possible. It's a show rich in a great mythology that unfolds a little bit every episode, and the chemistry of the cast just clicks with great dialogue.
Last season was mostly centered around Aidan's attempts to free himself from the control of his sire Bishop and his Mafia-like attempt to wipe out the governing council known as "The Dutch", taking over the Boston vampire syndicate. Winding through this compelling plotline was Josh's love for a beautiful co-worker, Nora (Kristen Hager) and his fear that she (and his immediate family) would discover his secret life and Sally's journey of self-discovery as a ghost as well as learning the truth about her murder.
This season, Nora must deal with two new developments in her life with Josh, Sally is trying to escape her limitations with the help of other ghosts and a nurse at the hospital who helps lost spirits "reincarnate", Aidan deals with the reprecussions of his fateful battle with Bishop, and Josh is desperately trying to develop a cure for his lycanthropy with the help of a brother and a sister who are full bred werewolves. Our three protagonists are facing the temptations that have fallen in their path to "being human", and it's certainly going to be interesting in how they extricate themselves... if they can. (Syfy, 10:00 PM EST Mondays)
Justified: He's like Andy Griffith, only armed and pissed off. He's U.S. Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens, the creation of mystery novelist Elmore Leonard. He's two-gun justice, a man out of place in the 21st Century, and whether his fellow officers want to admit it or not, he's Kentucky's No. 1 deterent to crime. And the bad guys he goes up against aren't the typical cardboard cut-outs from every third rate cop show. More often than not, they're folks Raylan has known since childhood growing up in his native Harlan County, a mining area hit by hard times, forcing many of the residents to make choices for the worst. And Raylan often finds himself in the unenviable position of having to haul them in, either in handcuffs or with tags on their toes.
Timothy Olyphant, previously best known for his role as Sheriff Seth Bullock on HBO's Deadwood, brilliantly plays Marshall Rayland as a man who grew up on classic Western TV shows and firmly believes that the best way to deliver true justice is a bullet in the skull than in the belly. He's not perfect by any means, both in the field and his personal life (he recently broke up his ex-wife's marraige to a shifty real estate broker and the two are expecting a baby Raylan). And for his amazing efforts, Olyphant has been nominated for Emmys two years in a row, and may be working on his third as of this date.
Of course every iconic hero has to have an arch-villain, and in that we have the perfect yang to Raylan's yin, Boyd Crowder, as portrayed by The Shield's Walter Goggins. A boyhood friend of Raylan's, Boyd went bad at an early age and just kept getting worse. Originally the leader of a neo-Nazi crime ring in Harlan, his initial encounter with Raylan upon the marshall's return to Harlan left him severely wounded, his organization in ruins, and, supposedly, Boyd repentant of his prior misdeeds. Throughout the last two seasons, Raylan and Boyd have found themselves united to a common cause, as any good adversaries should. But Boyd is trying to rebuild his criminal empire, and his hillbilly exterior masks a calculating mind that will go to any lengths to make that a reality. And Raylan is the black cat crossing his path.
Tuesdays at 10:00 PM EST on FX just don't come soon enough for me.
I'll be back with more stuff very soon.
