Waitress (2007)

It was chick-flick Sunday night at our house. CinemaxHD has on the 2007 film Waitress starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and Andy Griffith. My wife is a Russell fan from the days of Felicity, and I'm a huge fan of Fillion's from Firefly and other things. So, it was a good film compromise.

The story is about a young waitress/pie-maker (Russell) who is trapped in her marriage. As the film opens, she discovers that she is pregnant as well. Unhappy about it all, she visits her local OBGYN only to find that the regular doctor is now semi-retired and a new, male doctor (Fillion) is now filling in. This doctor is everything her arrogant, self-centered, abusive husband is not. The young woman is biding her time, and hiding her tip money, until she can get out of town and go to the national pie-baking festival (where her inventive recipes have a good chance to win). Griffith plays the old and quirky owner of the restaurant that the waitress works at.

While a good film, it is still very much a woman-empowerment film. The young waitress struggles to find an escape from her life and to avoid getting into an equally confusing situation with the doctor. In the end, she finds the right path for her to take.

Square Pegs

Last night I watched the first disk from Square Pegs: the Complete Series on DVD. For those not familiar with the show, it ran on CBS for a single season from Fall of 1982 to the Spring of 1983. It was created and produced by Ann Beats, one of the early Saturday Night Live writers, and many of the episodes were also worked on by SNL writers past and present. It also was the show that launched a number of young actors in their careers, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Jami Gertz and Tracy Nelson.

The show as about two girls - Patty (Parker) and Lauren (Amy Linker) starting high school and deciding it was time to move from the more geeky clique they were in before to a more popular one. Although they keep failing to join the popular group that included Jennifer (Nelson), Vinnie and LaDonna, they do end up befriending a couple of out-on-the-fringe guys - comedienne Marshall (John Fernia) and the new-waver Johnny "Slash" (the late Merritt Butrick). Gertz played the every peppy-preppy Muffy Tepperman.

Due to Ann Beats SNL connections, the show featured interesting guest stars. The Waitresses did the show's theme song as well as appeared in the first episode. New-wave band Devo appeared an episode as well. From the comedy end, folks like Father Guido Sarducci and Bill Murray appeared in episodes as well.

The show was different than most sitcoms. It was filmed with a single camera rather than the standard 3-camera approach. Also, it was not done in front of a studio audience, so there is no annoying laugh-track. The humor is subtle and smart, not slapstick. I had forgotten about all this in the 25 years since the show aired. I had not seen it since it went off the air back in the day.

The DVD set, three disks in all, contains all 19 original episodes. It also contains sections from the actors today talking about memories of doing the show, of working with fellow castmates, etc. I enjoyed that feature a lot.

So, why does Square Pegs resonate with me after all this time. A couple reasons really.

First, this was on during my senior year of high school. That was a big time in my life - a time of ending one chapter and preparing for a new one (going to college). I also had grown a lot that year, coming out of my own shell socially. In a lot of ways, I got what the characters of Patty and Lauren were trying to do - to find the right place that their "square pegs" would fit in the scheme of life while still remaining true to themselves. The writers got that high school was about cliques and that fitting in didn't always come easy. And that sometimes people who were even in the most popular cliques had their own issues too. It was a show that reflected reality to me in a number of aspects.

Second, I loved that the show reflected a lot of the new-wave trends in music at the time. From the bands who appeared to posters on the walls in scenes to topical references, this show hit on the music of the time - and it was music I was growing into due to listening to the local college radio station during my later high school years. People like Devo, the Waitresses, Madness, Laurie Anderson, Prince, the Thompson Twins, the Dead Kennedys, etc. - all of this I got from listening to the SUNY Fredonia radio station. This type of music was the soundtrack of my later high school years and early college years.

Finally, Marshall and Johnny were close buds in a way that I was with my best friend John Palmer. I'm not sure which of us was which. Maybe we had a little bit of both of them in each of us. John did an awesome Johnny impersonation with the catch-phrase "totally different head...totally" (the implication there that something was a different mind-set from something else - as in "Not punk. New-wave. Totally different head...totally."). John and I would totally chat about each episode after they aired. See...there I go. Those totally's dropping into my speech pattern. That's thanks to this show.

There you go. My thoughts and such on Square Pegs. Like many shows I enjoyed over the years that only lasted a single season, it was something that the networks didn't get but the fans did. I'm very pleased to have this show for posterity in my DVD collection.

Potshot

I did something in the past 24 hours that I don't normally do: I polished off from cover to cover a nearly 300 page book. The book would be Robert B. Parker's 2001 novel Potshot, the 28th book in the Spenser series. (Okay, we had a big thunderstorm roll through last night for about an hour, so I couldn't watch TV or be on the computer, etc. Reading was a good way to pass the time while the storm passed.)

In this one, Spenser is hired by a woman in California to investigate the murder of her husband. When Spenser goes out to the town of Potshot, CA, he finds that there is a seedy element on the edge of town that appears to be responsible. At least, that's what the woman and most of the townfolk claim.

In trying to solve the murder, a number of the town's business men and the mayor decide to hire Spenser to clear our the seedy element as well. Since it is forty against one, the Boston detective decides to balance the odds a bit. To do that, he assembles his own "magnificent seven" - and the author uses this to bring back six characters from past novels for another adventure. Of course, Hawk is first. Then Vinnie Morris who has helped in the past. From Nevada comes Bernard J. Fortunato, from California comes Chollo and Bobby Horse. And from the previous novel Hugger Mugger, Tedy Sapp makes a return appearance.

This novel was very gripping (as evidenced how I couldn't put it down really). The story has a good mystery, which Spenser solves in the end. And, like a number of the last few novels, things don't always end up in as tidy a little package as one would expect. It shows the author is finding more gray in the world, especially in writing in this new millennium.

Comics of the Week (6/25/08)

Final Crisis #2 (of 7) - I have to admit, I had to read this issue twice for a lot of it to make sense. I really wish Grant Morrison wouldn't write so confusing. I had problems with his stuff when he did Doom Patrol in the early 90's and then JLA in the late 90's. As for this issue, lots of stuff going on but waaaaay too many pages up front on the new Japanese heroes. I know they're his creations and he wants to spotlight them, but come on. This should be about the big guns. The final page of the issue helps, but I just hope that return is a permanent one.

Green Lantern #32 - continues "Secret Origin" with part 4. This is more than just the origin of Hal Jordan as GL, but also the origin of a lot of his foes too. A good issue, well-told and evenly paced. A nice breather of sorts before the next big epic.

Trinity #4 (of 52) - another good issue of this weekly. The story in both the main front and the backup continue to move nicely. If it were a monthly title, the pacing would be off - but for a weekly it rolls along fine. I love the 3-part poster covers so far. Nice touch. But three does not go into 52 evenly so something will give in the end.


Teen Titans #60 - the final chapter of the Terror Titans tale, and it was a great battle. As much as I love all these new villains, this new Clock King is very cool. I like that he's making himself a big villain for the Teen Titans. I'm also intrigued by the whole "Dark Side Club" subplot, which is really a side-tie-in to Final Crisis. The team of McKeever and Barrows make this a fun book each month.

Hugger Mugger

Hugger Mugger, written in 2000, is Robert B. Parker's 27th Spenser novel. It is also the name of a race horse owned by the Clive family whom employ the Boston detective to investigate some horse shootings at their Georgia stable. When Spenser makes a trek down south, he finds an odd mystery and an even odder family.

I really enjoyed this novel a lot. There was an interesting cast of characters introduced in the mystery - from daughters Penny, Stonie and SueSue, to the husbands Pud and Cord to the town sheriff and even the characters brought in during the brief vignette when Spenser is off the case and back in Boston (before he gets right back involved in it again).

Parker definitely groomed this novel well and kept the excitement racing down to the final post (see how I threw in those horse racing analogies there - grin). Just when I was starting to feel a little bored with the series after so many books, this one renewed my interest again. Can't wait to dive into the next one.

I Love the...

I have to admit that I am a huge fan of VH-1's I Love the... series. To date, they've done the 70's twice, the 80's three times and the 90's once. Well, this week (starting tonight) get ready for them to mock 2000-2007 with I Love the New Millennium.

"Wasssssuuuuup!"

Yeah, that's what'll start it all. Remember those Budwiser commercials? Was it really back in 2000? Yup.

I caught the sneak preview first episode yesterday and had to smile a number of times. Sure, they have some lame bits too, but not every hour can be 100% golden. Think of it like more recent days of Saturday Night Live, of the ninety minutes you really only get about 2/3rds of that as decent material.

The computer graphics that bumper between segments are again cool. Yup, we're now a society dominated by our hand-held devices (video games, cell phones, iPods - heck even the graphics for the show spell it iLove the New Millennium). It's all interactive, baby. And to tie-in, they even have extended video-blog entries on the VH-1.com website for more humorous bits from the commentators. Everyone seems to be back too - Hal Sparks, Michael Ian Black, Godfrey, and Wil Wheaton even. When "Wesley Crusher" can snark at stuff, you know it deserves snarkying. ;)

Check it out!

Rest in Peace, George Carlin

I just read the news this morning of the passing of George Carlin, master of comedy, at age 71 of heart failure. This is a sad way to start the week. Carlin always could make me smile with one of those "I never really looked at it that way" types of jokes. They didn't beat you over the head - they were just so funny in that they should have been such obvious observations. And his delivery - excellent.

He will be missed.