This weekend’s The New York Times Magazine has an essay by Heather Havrilesky, ‘Clues that lead to more clues that add up to nothing’, lamenting the narrative plotting of post-Lost television drama. ‘The empty thrills, the ticking clock that never runs down, the pointless twists and turns that are neither motivated nor resolved’ are in danger, runs the rather shrill argument, of killing American television’s new ‘golden age’ (The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men et al). For a more nuanced discussion, take a look at Lost in a great story: evaluation in narrative television (and television studies), scholar Jason Mittell’s October 2007 blog post at Just TV from with his appreciation of, among other qualities, the show’s ‘twists and turns’: ‘For me and many other viewers, the ability to be pleasantly surprised by a television series violating conventions and expectations keeps us tuning in and anticipating future twists, offering a wealth of pleasures within both the show’s story content and storytelling form.’ Mittell has just posted the text of a keynote that’s also directly relevant, The qualities of complexity: aesthetic evaluation in contemporary television. It’s an essential read – and see also posts at InMediaRes about Popular seriality (one of them Mittell’s). Across the break, further links to good stuff.
• Inner and outer in Homeland: just for a moment (before more weighty matters) pursuing the American serial television thread, take a look at Jason Jacobs’ response to Homeland at CSTonline …
• American Horror Story: … and while there take a look at Steven Peacock’s introduction to 20th Century-Fox’s new gothic horror tale (which so upsets Heather Havrilesky in the piece above).
• Václav Havel – director of a play that changed history: Timothy Garton Ash (who else would you want to read?) on the passing of the playwright and former President of Czech Republic…
• Exit Havel: … but do read as well this wonderful David Remnick profile for The New Yorker from 2003…
• The revolution of the Magic Lantern: … and this is another glorious Garton Ash piece from the New York Review of Books archive, dated 18 January 1990.
• Reading list – Havel and beyond: finally on this thread, here are David Remnick’s recommendations for reading about central Europe in the post-war years; as he says, the writers ‘like Havel, are men and women who lived, and wrote, within the truth’.
• Griel Marcus on why The Doors still matter: this interview with Eric Been for The Atlantic is an immaculate demonstration on why Marcus still matters as a critic.
• Film of the month – Mysteries of Lisbon: for Sight & Sound Jonathan Romney is characteristically insightful about Raúl Ruiz’s final masterpiece; Graham Fuller is also very good on the film for The Arts Desk.
• Pandora’s digital box – the last 35 picture show: David Bordwell lovingly recounts the changeover of the Goetz Theatre in Monroe, Wisconsin from being a cinema with 35mm projection to one with a digital system.
• Universities under attack: the London Review of Books‘ important series continues with Rachel Malik’s essay.
• No copyright intended: intriguing reflection (with equally good comments) on the posting of Pulp Fiction on YouTube rearranged in chronological order (the film is still there, with an embed on the page to which this links) (thanks to the invaluable @brainpicker).
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