Ben Barren - Confessions of a Mad Man » #lost in australia like living a @lifeonmars with #damages

#lost in australia like living a @lifeonmars with #damages

Have to quickly mention how kickass global telecommunications is - whether it’s free skype or an old version of Azureus running on a PowerPC imac - just trying to make do with the crappy computer before i take teh appreciated advice and try2 fix my work computer (althjo i think its dvd drive) or get $ome work 2pay4fixes. Anyway so last night I had skype treats + thx2 the so fast/up2date tracker : torrentvault : a trifecta of programming gold; I leaned back2 Damages S2E6, Lost S5E5 + Life on Mars S1E10. With such acting talent + best of industry screenwriting how can u go wrong ?

It's Lester and Kendricks from The Wire. Click4Torrent.

With Damages, u have Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close absolutely amping up the badass lawyer to the max, William Hurt playing all sides which has to end badly, Ted Danson is just coming back with a flip as via NYMag he “meets with this season’s baddie, Balanchine-loving Kendrick, at the ballet. Frobisher out-crasses Kendrick in describing their mutual adversary, Patty, as a castrating, dildo-wearing rapist. But the potty-mouthing was all for show. Because, in the Big Reveal of the night, Frobisher is the UNR shareholder recruited by Patty to sue UNR.”, and of course we have Australia’s pixie own Rose Byrne who is going to shoot someone prob not Patty, and then 3 of The Wire cast are excellent esp Dep Commission for Operations the closeted Det Rawls - who is the lead baddie in Series 2 - Kendricks, and one of his goons is Lester Freeman from the Wire, and from Series 5 we also have the politically sucky Sub-Editor, who is a hitman (same guy is the father of the special girl in life of the conchords, is there any1 doing more diverse stuff ?)

He's the Dad in Flight of Conchords + Sub-Editor in S5 The Wire, but a Hardcore Hitman in #Damages. Read NY Mag piece.

Damages and Lost are very similar in as well as being brilliant and top of their game, both use heavy use of flash forward/back and both necessitate u have seen all series + eps (well at least 70%) before. (or just make sure u have seen previous season) Unfortunate for those that havent, caviar for those that have. And why it’s such compelling viewing. You cant call yourself a The Wire fan and not watch Damages in my opinion, with the same themes of instiutional decay, corruption, amorality and when u have a problem - put out a hit.

A Gr8 Lost Episode "This place is Death" - Read Film School Rejects Review : "One way or the other, the Oceanic 6 are going to get back on the island. A few theories we are throwing around; 1) Locke allows Benjamin to kill him and take Jin’s wedding band to trick Sun. Of course, it would be easier if Locke just lies to Sun. But you can’t break promises when you’re dead. 2) The plane crash of Oceanic Flight 815 opened up a whole in the Space-Time continuum, disrupting the normalcy of both “worlds.” In order to right the disruption, which currently seems to be only affecting the islanders, the members of the crash must all stay on the island. Eventually, the portal must be closed or the nosebleeds and illnesses will spread to present day reality. Those who died on the island return to present day as ghosts, but can only be seen by true believers or the innocent, maybe? (Hurley) The concept would explain why such importance has been placed on getting the Oceanic 6 back on the island for good."

Daughter, Love Interest + Ex

One more actor I need to mention is Maggie Siff. She seems to be in everything I really like. My top 2 favourite shows of 2008 for example; Mad Men and Sons of Anarchy (True Blood a close third), she’s the key love interest. And it’s always daughter (or symbolic prodigal daughter returning home) and/or love interest/ex. She plays Don Draper’s strongest burnt love interest in Mad Men (being the daughter of the Jewish retail client, who ends up marrying the most boring looking character ever presented on Mad Men and then returns from overseas married) And on Sons of Anarchy (please season 2 come quick) she is the girl that grew up in bikie gang territory but left, only to come back a doctor and hook up with childhood sweetheart Jax - the main character and SOA Bike Charter Vice President who murders her ex corrupt FBI screepy dude. And last night, she was on Life of Mars as the love interest who is Harvey Keitel, the chief of police’s, daughter. Bad boy Sam but I’m glad 10 eps in u have moved on from Lisa Bonet who was only around for first 10 minutes of episode 1.

Love Interest, Ex + Daughter - Maggie Siff Rox in Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy and now Life on Mars.

So there u go, connect the dots on how good talent will follow itself onto good projects. It’s the classic anti long tail argument - There are only so many good creative projects at any one time. In Australia for example there are no good creative projects*. Well maybe a small handful that will find a way to eat themselves if they dont escape the continent. (no im not projecting ere just using market facts, irony ppl) And as a result no good web sites come out of here.

As Facebook and Flickr who recently had their 5 year anniversaries and can argue about valuation for internet properties in the 50m-150m internet users range, in Australia we have no such websites celebrating that type of success 5 years in. Move a decimal point the other way and we still dont rate. As I often say the only consumer internet success locally (carsales, seek, realestate.com) were either copied from overseas; (autobytel, monster/hotjobs, etc) derived from monopoly (telstra, sensis) or an overseas license/jv (9MSN, Yahoo7, Etrade, Google Australia etc) Smaller business facing internet we’re better at btw… Atlassian, Hitwise, MYOB etc or Mobile Mig33 etc ill stop.. im talking tv and creativity anyway! Maybe government could microfund those than spend $125MILLION on the fkn censorship #clean filter. It’s the stuff that honestly makes u want to not work in the country or to do so off the grid and be a virtual exporter.

It seems FBI Paranormal division in 1973 is run by Blair Waldorfs new Father in Law. Click for Torrent.

I could mention that has nothing to do with internet, but everything to do with how industry can collaborate and pull talent together to make the highest rating tv show ever, and after Love My Way prob 2nd best drama if the Underbelly Prequel premiere double ep was a guide (Much better than first which i thought was overacted and 2dimensional, simpleton even - it was too carl williams, the prequel is better - it helps with the setting im sure they’ve been inspired by styling from Life on Mars US, but also Swingtown etc Heck even Van Sant’s Milk. Stuff set late 70’s early 80’s just looks good in the late noughties.) I digress, oh well : At least the ISP I’m using at current abode for not too long hopefully - Primus - will be the first to test teh internet clean filter. Awesome let’s block some internet domains. In fact, lets block access to all the .com social networking and blogging domains - which could create an opportunity for a local player. A family friendly grant could be applied for, and Facebook here we come; ConnectU 2.0 - Australia, we can become a nation of fast following, imitative, derivative, family safe, over priced, slow internet socialistic funded social_capitalists. Viva la #cleanfilter revolution.