Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

***1/2

Harry Potter……………………….Daniel Radcliffe
Dolores Umbridge………………....Imelda Staunton
Sirius Black……………………….Gary Oldman
Severus Snape……………………..Alan Rickman
Professor Dumbledore…………….Michael Gambon
Hermione Granger…………………Emma Watson
Ron Weasely………………………Rupert Grint
Voldemort…………………………Ralph Fiennes

Directed by David Yates
Screenplay by Michael Goldenberg
Based on the novel by J. K. Rowling

Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2 hrs. 18 min.


There’s been a lot made of the magic being gone. I have to admit: for a time, I was wondering whether it was.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (movie #5 of 7) doesn’t begin as effortlessly as the others have. There are scenes that don’t pop as much as they have in the previous movies. The lone scene with Harry’s aunt and uncle was uncomfortable, like they tried to cram into a 2-minute scene all of the humor the other movies found in Harry’s home life and it burst.

But at some point, and I can’t say when it happened, the movie took off. I felt the same way I do when I read the books: breathless excitement as each scene unfolds wondering what’s going to happen next.

The movie opens well with a genuinely frightening scene when Harry and his step-brother Dudley are attacked by Dementors. In order to save himself and Dudley, Harry has to use magic.

For this, Harry is expelled from Hogwarts. He is eventually allowed to return, but Hogwarts is not the haven it once was. The newspapers and many classmates are accusing him of lying about Voldemort’s return (Harry fought Voldemort at the end of the previous film). There’s a new Professor of the Dark Arts, Dolores Umbridge, who is also a member of the Ministry of Magic, and who does not take kindly to being questioned. Professor Dumbledore seems oddly absent. And Harry is having recurring nightmares.

There are a few bright spots for Harry. He begins leading a secret class teaching defense against the dark arts because Miss Umbridge is not teaching them anything practical. And then there’s his first kiss.

There are so many intangibles with this outing that I don’t know where to place either the little blame or the considerable credit. There’s a new writer and it’s the longest of the Potter books, but it is new director David Yates who has received the brunt of the attacks. Several critics have said that he hasn’t brought anything new to the series. Really, I’m not sure anyone up to this point has added their stamp except Alfonso Cuaron with the edge he brought to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Yates wisely builds on this as Mike Newell did in the previous installment. But Yates brings a delicacy to this film that has been absent before. This movie has time for character and there are many intimate scenes that depend on acting and not effects. All the actors have improved, particularly Daniel Radcliffe. When he asks Dumbledore why he’s angry all the time, it’s heartbreaking. His scenes with his godfather Sirius (Gary Oldman) are excellent. The bond between them is very real.

Imelda Staunton has been added to the cast and is wonderful as Dolores Umbridge. Everything about her acting, costumes, and set decoration (love the cat plates) undercut her sadism, yet it makes her that much more terrifying.

But please, let’s give it up for Alan Rickman who works his own special type of magic on screen. He has a scene in which he utters only two words, both of which elicited laughs from the audience.

Finally, for all those who are complaining that the wonderment is gone, of course it is. J. K. Rowling’s brilliance was to begin this story as an objective experience, but the more we grow with Harry, the more subjective the story becomes. We have to experience things as Harry is. I suggest you stop complaining and come along for the ride. You might miss some magic you weren’t expecting.

Vent

I was going to blog about my first Cubs game but why waste your time with that when the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority for those who are ignorant of the hate) has provided me with such grand...fodder.

The CTA and I, we're good friends the way that ex-lovers are: You ride 'em 'cause it's convenient, but you'd really rather have another. Ride, that is.

We've come to terms. I catch her an hour before I have to be at work. Usually I'll arrive right on time. Sometimes early. Sometimes 5 minutes late. That's fine. She's a public transportation system. I can't expect her to pay attention to only my needs. But today? Today, she must have forgotten those terms.

Things started out well enough. I wanted to be at work a half-hour early, but I actually only left the house 15 minutes early. I resigned myself to being 15 minutes early. Fine. However, when I got to the train platform, lo and behold, a train pulled up. I'm going to be a half-hour early! Aw, shucks, CTA. You didn't have to.

Things are going smoothly: I'm listening to my friend Tyler's podcast, Battleship Pretension; I've got a Decemberists concert (the reason I'm leaving early) to look forward to; the sun is shining; the stops are flying by. Nice.

Then we hit the Jarvis stop. And stay. For a while. Longer. Longest. How long are we going to be here? Eventually we move. I check my watch. Down to 15 minutes early.

Howard stop. As we pull up, I look for a Yellow Line train to Skokie, my next transfer. None waiting. Still 15 minutes early. And I've got a little cushion.

But not enough cushion. This is when things go haywire. I'm waiting, watching train after train (red, purple) pass with nary a yellow in the mix. People are starting to complain. CTA attendants are stopped and asked what's going on. One tells us to go to the other tracks, the southbound tracks, where we see two yellows waiting. A little unusual since we (there's a number of us now) want to go north, but not unheard of on the CTA. And so we obediently go down one stairwell and come up the other to find one of the yellows leaving. Never fear; another awaits. Down there. We wait for it to come up a bit and meet us as it usually would on the northbound side. But there's nothing usual about today. It sits, and sits. We go to meet it. It moves. We wait to see where it will stop. It doesn't.

I'm a calm person. But at this point, I'm ready to talk to someone. I'm now going to be on time if a train leaves RIGHT NOW. Across the way on the northbound side, the correct side, a yellow line has snuck past us and is boarding. WHAT? People are pointing fingers, asking questions of one another; two CTA workers (one of whom was the one who told us to come to this side) are doing the same thing; and a yellow pulls up dropping people off from Skokie, that now fabled place where I once did travel with great convenience.

We're at the breaking point. I've got a pitchfork in my hand, the man beside me is trying ineffectually to light his torch with a butane lighter, when a voice from on high sounds: "This train to Skokie leaving right out from here."

I board. I check my watch. It's going to be close. Ah, well. Tyler and David are discussing spaghetti on a movie podcast and things are looking eerily normal. I arrive at Skokie and set my feet on the platform as one who has been lost at sea and waded ashore. I begin to kneel to kiss the ground but someone bumps my butt with their bag so I think better of it.

I am on the last leg of my journey. I need a bus right now to be on time. I look. No bus. OK, maybe I have a minute. 5 minutes later, one arrives. I'm going to be 5 minutes late. And just to thumb her nose at me, the CTA has provided me a driver who can't make the turn without backing up: BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

I did arrive 5 minutes late at 9:05. I began my odyssey at 7:45. You do the math.

Celebrating the 4th

The 4th of July has quickly become one of my favorite holidays. Growing up, the grilling holidays (4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day) were not big holidays for my family. We went to some barbecues. I think my great uncle's huge barbecue bash was one of these holidays. But there were many that just passed as nothing more than a day off. I didn't think much of it until I got older and realized there were certain friends I couldn't call on these days because they would be at a barbecue.

Moving to Chicago, I've met some new friends who grew up in these families have decided to carry on the tradition of their parents'. Through them, I've learned why people love celebrating these holidays. It's a great time to get together with people whom you may not have seen since the last grilling holiday and drink copious amounts of beer (but spread throughout the day so no one need get trashed unless one so desires) and play games that you wouldn't consider playing otherwise like volleyball or cornholing (the less vulgar term would be bags).

But of these holidays, Chicago doesn't celebrate any of them like the 4th. And I'm not sure any city celebrates the 4th like Chicago does.

I was only visiting Chicago with thoughts of moving here when I first experienced it. And the amazing thing about it was I wasn't even a participant. That's the thing: Independence Day in Chicago will find you. You want to escape, you leave the city.

I was staying with my friend Carol. It was about 104 degrees outside and even warmer inside. She didn't have any plans and therefore I didn't either, so we figured we'd watch a movie. Since neither of us had seen The Piano, we decided that Independence Day would be the perfect day for viewing it. So there we were, sitting on the floor (it was too hot to sit on the couch), sweating from the exertion of simple respiration, watching The Piano. We began the movie around 4. About 5, the fireworks started.

Now when I went home after my visit, I swore to a friend that the official, city-sponsored fireworks lasted from 5 - 11 p.m. She didn't believe me and was right to not. However, she had not been there. The city fireworks actually happen on the 3rd. I guess the entire city decides to pick up the slack.

Seriously, if you have PTSD, don't come to Chicago. This 4th I went to a beach in Rogers Park, the northern most neighborhood of the city. Right north of it is Evanston whose fireworks we decided we'd catch from there. But who needs fireworks from miles away when you can be in the midst of them?

I looked up Illinois's fireworks laws yesterday. You can play with sparklers and and what not. But these are illegal: Firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets, roman candles, and bombs. I saw some sparklers, but I think I was more distracted by the firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets, roman candles and bombs. Where were the police? Everywhere, but I think it's pretty hard to crack down when the entire city is exploding.

I went to look for a fountain and felt like I was in a war zone. There were explosions all around us. Far to the north and far to the south. The only reason they weren't to the east is that there's a big lake there. Even then, someone decided to fire skyrockets at a lower angle toward the water.

And we're not talking just rinky-dink skyrockets that make more noise than they do anything else. At least two groups of people had spent God knows how much money on professional grade fireworks. The kind that explode into a color and then become mini sparklers. Ones with monstrous diameters. And they were only firing them 50 yards away. It was a little scary considering that some of the color didn't die before they hit the ground.

We even had a hard time telling when the Evanston fireworks began because someone else further up the coast had decided to buy professional fireworks as well. But Evanston's are beautiful and perhaps the best fireworks I've seen.

While on the beach, in between singing any patriotic songs we could think of, I got to talking with my friend Rick about Independence Day. He said it was a holiday that really made him look back over the year, much more than New Year's. I'd have to say I agree. New Year's carries with it pressure to end the year with a bang. Independence Day? You've got all summer, why not just enjoy what you've got right now.

Transformers

***1/2

I was in the movie theater waiting for Transformers to begin when a friend asked me, “So which Transformers did you have?”

“You know, I can’t really remember.”

My friend almost did a double take. “Where do you come from?”

I remember liking The Transformers (and their lesser-known counterparts, Go-Bots), but I can’t really remember them. I was much more into He-Man and Silverhawks and Star Wars.

All that to say, I watched the movie as a novice. I was in the minority. I couldn’t remember such excitement since Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released. Maybe The Matrix: Reloaded. Both of those died pretty quickly. This did not. This excitement grew throughout the entire movie. As did mine.

Plot? OK. If I must. A U. S. helicopter that won’t identify itself lands at a US Air Force base somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East. Before you know it, this simple helicopter transforms into a three-story robot that destroys the base…and is looking for something. What? The Allspark. It fell to Earth millennia ago and contains a great power that if harnessed can blah blah blah…. Long and short: good guys (Autobots) and bad guys (Decepticons) both want it and so came to Earth to get it.

Meanwhile, our hero, Sam Witwicky (played by perhaps the next great actor Shia Labeouf) is dealing with high school: he can’t get the girl, the jocks don’t like him, he has friends that embarrass him in front of both, and his parents are ridiculous. But things may be looking up. In a shady car dealership run by Bernie Mac (has this guy ever been unfunny?), he happens upon an old Camaro.

Yes, it is a Transformer. Bumblebee, an Autobot (i.e. good guy, remember?). And so the fun begins. As a summer blockbuster, this is a great movie. As Ebert is found of saying, stuff blows up real good. There is plenty of humor. And the actors fill in what the script has sketched so we care about the characters. Of particular note are Kevin Dunn and Julie White who play Sam’s parents. They are a married couple the moment they share the screen and Ms. White is so funny she almost runs away with a movie in which giant robots fight each other. Oh, yeah. The Transformers. Judging by the cheers of the audience, they were not done a disservice.

I was entertained from beginning to end. Sure, in looking back today, there are bits and characters that didn’t really need to be there, but I didn’t care at the time. And a movie is about what happens to you when you are watching it.

I have hope for Michael Bay. His last two movies (this and The Island) were made without producer Jerry Bruckheimer and have had room for things other than explosions. He will never make a small, character-driven film, but a lot of other people will. He’s going to stick to what he does, and something may actually come of it.

I have seen it, and it is good

Isn't that beautiful? Definitely has the Paul Thomas Anderson touch. Also some Terrence Malick.

I'm going to go watch it again.

This is killing me!

IMDb has a link to the preview for There Will Be Blood on YouTube and I can't watch it because my work is smart enough to block it!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

OK. I am going to calm down...

(breathe)

Hello. Allow me to explain: There Will Be Blood is the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. He is my favorite director. The move stars Daniel Day-Lewis who is one of the greatest actors who has ever lived. You probably saw him in Gangs of New York. He was Bill the Butcher. He has also done amazing work in My Left Foot and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Did you get that? They are working together. My excitement at finding out this was going to happen, my words to explain it, they are too vulgar to be written here. In my mind, this is a cosmic event.

AND I HAVE TO WAIT SEVEN HOURS TO BE ABLE TO CATCH A GLIMPSE!!!

But heark, an angel tells me that there is an individual in the office who is able to view YouTube. There is hope.

Two things that made me happy

As I was running this morning, I passed a car that was stopped at a traffic light blaring music. I caught a bit and thought, "Did I really hear that?" So I listened closely. "Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo, Doo-doo. Can't touch this."

The other thing that made me happy was this preview:

The Spoilers (SOPRANOS!)

Crap. I mean The Sopranos (SPOILERS!). You have to admit, those words have practically become synonymous the last few days. Still, don't want to spoil that for anyone who hasn't seen it. So don't read on.

You know what's so damn funny about all of this? There's nothing to spoil. The show simply ended with a blackout. But we all have to be so quiet which is going to make those who want to play catch-up on DVD even more confounded.

Everyone's got an opinion about the finale. And I'm going to weigh in with mine.

It was brilliant. Yep, I'm (apparently) in the minority. It is exactly in line with everything that has come before.

The Sopranos has never really been a fluid show. Things begin and end abruptly. Even it's editing is sometimes cruel. Like the movie Punch-Drunk Love, it seems to want to assault you. To make you feel like these characters do.

It also follows along with The Sopranos refusing to resort to cliffhangers (the refuge of hacks). Sure, a season would end with plots begun, but it never left us hanging about the fate of a character. Each season was a springboard to the next. So it's only fitting that the show should end that way. Plots were set up (an indictment, AJ's and Meadow's new careers, Paulie new business, etc.). Most people seem to believe that Tony was whacked in the diner. I'm not so sure. It left us exactly in the middle of the things the show was about: family and the mob.

Me, I like to think that nothing happened. Tony goes on. He's indicted. AJ never becomes part of the mob. Carmela continues in her way as does Meadow. Sil...Sil probably passes. And I will miss him.

And everyone stop whining about a movie. This was not a set-up to a movie. David Chase is not that cheap. This was the end of a series. If you'll recall, it was not Chase's idea to have The Sopranos go on as long as it did. He wanted out earlier. HBO asked that he keep the show going. He's interested in telling stories. This is the end of the story.

In the end, what an amazing series. Perhaps one of the greatest character studies. Tony, I will miss you.

Lost Found?

I gave up on Lost this season. I couldn't handle the long, stagnant stretches. My favorite characters were nowhere to be seen. New characters were introduced without a hint of where they had been. With the exception of Desmond's episode after the hiatus, I was incredibly disappointed. The straw that broke the camel's back was [SPOILERS] when they find the bunker with the dude with the eyepatch. Sayid's episode.

First off, the flashback had no bearing on anything. The main story was OK. More mind games, but at least we were getting some...what? You just blew the building up? Then I hear that you kill eyepatch dude in the following episode?

Pointless. Wasted time. There were a hundred different ways to handle that exposition better than introducing a building you're going to blow up and a character you're going to kill off. I couldn't stomach it and I didn't have the time for it. I realized that I had been watching the show to get angry at it. I can't be doing that when I'm 27. Call me when I'm 80.

So, I read today that the show has an end date set. Shorter seasons. No hiatus. This just might save the show. We'll at least be able to see whether these guys can actually write. There will be no more excuses for them. The studio can't be blamed for running it into the ground. The long season can't be blamed for forcing them into holding patterns (do you remember Kate, Sawyer, and Jack in cages? How's that for a visual metaphor?).

So guys, I'll be back next season. It's your job to keep me there. You've got no more excuses.

I must be tired

I tried to put toothpaste on as deodorant this morning.

I got out of the shower, and the next thing I do every morning is put on deodorant. I opened the medicine cabinet...and reached for the toothpaste.

At this point, one might think I would realize my mistake.

I took the toothpaste in hand, took the cap off, raised my right arm exposing my armpit to apply, raised the toothpaste....

And the only reason, the only reason, that I didn't put on toothpaste this morning as deodorant is because I thought to myself, "How am I going to squeeze this onto my armpit?"

Red-Eye

This one's for all you Chicagoans.

Have you seen the movie Go? If not, it's great. One of the few Pulp Fiction rip-offs to actually make its own ripple in the public consciousness, and deservedly so.

Anyway, a character in the movie has a monologue about the singleframe comic strip Family Circus. He goes on and on about how much he hates it. He's enjoying the funny pages, laughing, having a grand old time. And then there's the Family Circus which, with it's sheer unfuniness, sucks all the joy out of his previous minutes of bliss.

Another character naturally asks why he reads it?

Because it's there.

This is how I feel about the Red-Eye.

Y2K

So at my place of work, our operating system is, well, decrepit. I'm pretty sure it's DOS. But today I found out just how decrepit it really is. If you've read the title, you've probably figured it out. That's right, we've got a Y2K problem.

And you thought it didn't affect anyone. Well it affects me!

I was searching for something from 01 to 03, in my mind 2001-2003. But the computer kept beeping at me and telling me that the "End date cannot come before begin date." So, I looked at those dates hard, trying to see if I've maybe missed something. I know from experience by editing any number of documents, balancing my checkbook, and playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for many hours, the slightest thing can slip right by you.

I couldn't find anything. So I called downtown to the agency guru. At which point he revealed that our system has a Y2K problem.

I laughed for a good long time.

Apparently, the changeover from 1900 to 2000 happened in the year 2003. So anything from 2000 to 2002 is read as 1900-1902. Which doesn't explain why it kept telling me that "End date cannot come before begin date" since it clearly does. By about a century. But I think it's the computer's way of throwing up it's hand and yelling, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! You didn't fix me?!?!"

I lost today

It was beautiful in Chicago yesterday. Early taste of spring. Low 70's and sun.

For some reason, I woke up grumpy this morning. (I think Sixepence None the Richer has a lyric about that.) I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to go to work, I didn't want to shower. I didn't want!

So, I decided to be passive-aggressive with the weather. I decided not to check it and I didn't wear a coat.

It's cold now.

Oh, what might have been.

Here, read this. This is from IMDb's Studio Briefing for February 7, 2007. I'll be back at the bottom.


Newly Counted College Kids Give Some Shows Big Boost

Analysts pointed out that several shows last week got a boost as a result of college-age viewers being included in the Nielsen survey for the first time. As Washington Post TV writer Lisa De Moraes observed, "Previously, they got in on the Nielsen action only when they went home to do laundry at holidays." ABC's Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, and What About Brian; NBC's Scrubs and The Office; Fox's Til Death; and CW's Gilmore Girls all saw huge leaps of 50 percent or more in their ratings for 18-49-year-olds. Scrubs, in fact, saw its ratings in that demo double.


Hey, me again.

WHAT!?!?!?!? You just started counting? Can we look at the statistics? One in particular. Scrubs doubled. DOUBLED!!! This from a show that I think has nearly been on the chopping block several times. You think they might reconsider now?

But what pisses me off most about this is the shows that we've lost that we didn't have to lose. The first one that came to mind for me was Arrested Development. You know kids on college campuses were watching that. The other show I thought of was Ed. Now I never watched Ed, but it seems like What About Brian perhaps inherited those viewers. In a conversation I had about this last night, Firefly came up.

I don't know. What do you think? What shows have we lost that we needn't have?

Creed

I got into one of those huge discussions about two weeks ago that's stuck with me. It was the kind of conversation that happens late at night, with or without alcohol. (This one with.) It was about the Bible and sexuality. (I told you it was huge.)

The conversation went all over the place, but at the end, it was me (this is ridiculous!) with a Bible in hand defending why I don't believe in having premarital sex. I should probably say that of the four people involved in this conversation, I was the only one to hold this belief.

I woke up the next morning and didn't feel good (part of it being the bottle of wine I consumed) because the discussion had essentially defined a Christianity that I don't believe in. That Chrisitianity was simply what you can and can't do. Because that's not what Christianity is to me. It's not why I believe.

I didn't become a Christian because I don't believe in premarital sex. Heck, I've had premarital sex in the past. And there it is. That's why I believe. Did you catch it? I did something I don't believe in.

I want to be a better person. But I'm not. I constantly foil myself in big and small ways. So when Jesus says, "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full," (John 10:10) I have to stand up and say, "Yes. I want that." Because I need something outside of me. Something bigger than me, because I sure as hell can't do it on my own.

One of my favorite singers, Steve Taylor, wrote a song called, "Jesus is for Losers." I'd have to say that's about right.

Stuff I didn't know I knew

"The tickets are for row Q."

My girlfriend is looking at tickets for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Kathleen Turner. I'm trying to help us get good seats.

"What is that," I say, "17 rows back?"

My girlfriend counts. "Yeah. 17."

HOW DID I KNOW THAT? That's amazing, right? I'm amazing.

And we got seats. Not those. We're in the balcony, but closer to the center.

My latest obsession

Modest Mouse's new single, "Dashboard." This song is infectious. Like Oukast's "Hey, Ya" and Smashmouth's "Walkin' on the Sun" that came before, I can't sit still when I hear "Dashboard". My friend Kate will often refer to the time we were walking from Piper's Alley and we passed a bar where "Hey Ya" was blasting from inside. I stopped on the sidewalk and simply started dancing. "Dashboard" is that song. My coworkers love it. I dance at work. And then, it gets inside my head so I hear it all the time. If you happen to be by me and I spontaneously start moving erratically, keep two things in mind: 1) I'm dancing, and 2) I most likely have "Dashboard" in my head. It's on their MySpace page. Check it out, funk soul brother.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.


No, not yet.


The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.

The Bears are going to the Super Bowl.


Wait, what?!!!


THE BEARS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wahoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Sopranos vs. The Wire

First off, apparently not everyone is watching The Wire on HBO. Fix that.

I myself recently began watching The Wire. I expected it to be good. What show on HBO isn't? But you may know me, and if you do, you know that I think The Sopranos is the best show ever produced. And I am not one to change my favorites often. It's a long process that necessitates much mental paperwork in triplicate.

But The Wire made me consider: Is this the best show ever? And I mean "ever." Such large pronouncements from people tend to make me cringe unless it's said with a minimum of 10 years' hindsight, but we are living in a golden age of television. Not since television's inception have we really utilized the medium to its fullest potential.

But back to the question. And the answer: It is one of the best television shows ever. It, along with The Sopranos, is a show that demonstrates exactly what TV can do. One is not better than the other. They are simply different beasts.

The Sopranos focus is character, mainly Tony Soprano. There is not a facet of him that the show has not explored. Many have complained about Season 6: Part 1, but I found it to be one of the best. It placed Tony in new circumstances and showed us what he would do. The other characters are just as rich: Carmela, Paulie, Silvie, Christopher. That is what The Sopranos is about. There are excellent plots lines (Season 1 concerning Tony's mother is probably my favorite), but that is secondary. The plot is there to reveal character. Character is what moves the story.

The Wire is plot. I have not seen anything more intricately plotted. In the first season, a character has a monologue relating their life to a chess game. The metaphor is true for the entire show. And that is what keeps us involved. So many shows create tension by keeping things from the audience. That's cheating. As Hitchcock would define it, that is surprise, not suspense. The Wire provides true suspense. We watch both sides of the law squaring off while we hold more pieces of the puzzle than they do.

The show doesn't use short-cuts in any area. That's what I appreciate the most about it. Almost any show or movie that you watch assumes that you have seen something like it before, and it will use that knowledge to make short-cuts. This is how CSI and Law & Order exist. They know that you've seen police and law procedurals before, so they gloss over some things so they can get to what they really want to show you. The Wire assumes you've never seen anything before. It shows you every detail that goes into making a case. And not in a pedantic way. Everything is handled with such finesse that you feel as if you've never seen, for instance, a courtroom scene. And you probably haven't. You've only seen an approximation. Each season of The Wire is essentially a 12 or 13-hour movie, so they have the freedom to do this.

They apply this same thoroughness to their characters. A stock character is a short-cut. When a stock character is used, there is not much set-up that needs to happen. We've seen them before. They can be thrown into a situation with immediate emotional dividends. While you may initially think you recognize a character on The Wire, they pretend that you don't. They present every situation so that when an emotional payoff arrives, it has been paved and payed for with toil on their parts. It makes it all the more powerful. Characters die on the show, and when they do, you have truly lost someone.

So treat yourself. TV is being used to choose pop stars and a cast for a musical , and that's great. It's a new facet of TV not previously explored. But as an art form, there are people doing incredible work here. If you don't have HBO, rent The Wire or The Sopranos. That's how I'm doing it. Some things are too good to pass up.

Hooray! It's cold!

I love that it is really cold. I am absolutely thrilled that it's snowing. Why? Because I live in Chicago and it's January and 60 degree weather freaks me out.

People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them I'm excited about all of this. Listen, if I didn't want seasons, if I wanted to worry about my tan over the holidays, I would live in California or Florida. But I don't. And you know what? I don't want to live there. I like my seasons. I like bundling up. I like braving the cold. I love to be inside at night when it snows. And I love how sweet it makes Spring when it comes around.

So you can moan and complain all you like and wish for your crazy world. I like that we have the old one back.