Top Female Television Characters

Coming in at number 7 on my list of top current female television actresses is Lena Headey who plays the always manipulating and clever Cersei Lannister.

Top 8 Female Television Characters

I am counting down my eight favorite female characters currently on television. Checking in at number 8 is Gemma Teller. Peg Bundy has come a long long way. Actually the underrated and brilliantly talented Katey Sagal has shown the world just how great of an actress she really is playing the matriarch of SAMCRO. Part Lady Macbeth, part overprotective mother, and completely original. Katey Sagal has created one of the most complex and interesting female characters to ever appear on television. The only thing predictable about her behavior is that fact that when she does not get her way she will find any possible means to correct that injustice. Somehow when the smoke clears and everyone else has fallen it seems impossible to think of Gemma not being there to guide the club in whatever direction she wants them to go in. A truly remarkable character indeed!

The Running Man

The Running Man

     The Running Man is a film that examines how television in the most extreme of circumstances can greatly affect a societies attitudes towards violence. In that regard the film was exceptionally prescient. Far from being a standard action film to showcase the talents of Arnold Schwarzenegger this film did an excellent job at examining the idea of reality television and  it's affect on a society long before the so called reality television craze officially began. The Hunger Games takes many cues from this underrated film as the basic plot centers a round a game show that has different bounty hunters hunt down and kill various criminals on live television. Schwarzenegger plays a man who has been framed and is considered to be amass murderer when he in fact refused a government order to fire upon innocent civilians. 

     It is amazing that this film hit upon how video footage as well as photography can be altered for various purposes and how people seem to blindly accept what they see on television as the truth. One of the most fascinating things about Arnold Schwarzenegger is that he his a big profile conservative who very much like the late Charlton Heston starred in a lot of action/sci-fi films that have very strong liberal messages and themes. One of the things that i admire about Arnold Schwarzenegger as a film star (not as a man because his womanizing destroyed his family) is that his films hold up much better over the years then his predecessors. It is hard to watch Steven Seagal movies now and appreciate their craft or appreciate how a pool stick is the most dangerous weapon known to man. 

     Arnold's films for the most part hold up because the films were excellent as was his acting in them. he played the role right and was the action hero icon of the 1980s and early 1990s. The Running Man is worth a look for how it portrays a culture fixated on television and reality television at that and on how the media manipulates information for it's own profit. Furthermore the films conclusion is very satisfying and in a way is truly epic for a science fiction/action film in that exposing the truth and bringing people together can get people to realize how they have been tricked and that society needs to change. Highly recommend this film!

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica Ending: A Ceremonial Slap in the Face!

 

The Sci-Fi Channel remake of Battlestar Galactica committed the worst atrocity in the history of science fiction television. It took the age old concept of man playing God and having it blow up in his face and then actually added God into the mix. Not only did this dramatic turn of events essentially come out of nowhere, it also greatly diminished the dramatic tension in the series. It also took the always dreaded Deus ex machine ending and applied it to the show in a truly literal sense. This was a real shame because what really made Battlestar Galactica such a special show was in watching how the characters reacted to their changing environment and then had to adjust their own actions based on the new situations that they found themselves in. It was a human drama and the fact that certain characters of their own freewill would come to certain decisions really made the show exceptionally compelling.

Consider the character of Laura Roslin  played by the wonderful Mary McDonnell. It was wonderful to watch her being transformed from the soft spoken Secretary of Education  to perhaps the most noble and prideful President since George Washington. Also what a wonderful idea to have the character use the cancer eating away at her body as the catalyst to transform herself into a true “bad ass.” Mind you, this was also before a character named Walter White  would make an appearance on our television screens and help to change the face of television. This character transformation is made all the more powerful because Laura Roslin decides to change not because God made it so but because she rose to the occasion of the moment. Remember this is fictional programming we are talking about here so unfortunately cramming God into the plot in the rushed way that they did really hurts the show’s narrative structure.

What also makes this ending such a slap in the face is that the writing over the course of the show was actually quite good.  There were excellent cliffhangers, dramatic turns of events, major character changes, and we also had several major turning points in the show. In fact many of these dramatic turns of events would have been perfect endings to the series. Remember the discovery of the “real” earth and the enslavement of the colony by the Cylons? The fact that the show possess at least two excellent endings and chooses not to use them is just maddening. The writers  were also able to make the Cylons become more human than we ever thought possible when they become complex enough to have a fraction of their members not want to annihilate the humans. Essentially, the Cylons develop freewill and then we have another contradiction because if God gave man freewill and man created the Cylons, then the Cylons could not dvelop freewill because they were not created by God.

Moreover, this Deus ex machina ending is precisely the type of ending that good literary professors tell their students to avoid at all costs. As such it is very much a slap in the face across every fan of this show that watched every episode and even sat through the “Razor” movie. We are rewarded for being faithful viewers by having the final answer to everything in the show being that it was essentially God’s plan to have the cylons and humans coexist together on an alien planet that is essentially the earth that we grew up on. It is one thing to do this for a film over the course of two hours or so but it is like a kick to the gut to end an entire series like this. With that being said not every show needs to end in a definitive fashion but not tying up any of your loose ends and simply using the presence of God to explain everything is lazy writing.  

The question to ask  is was it the intention of the show’s creators all along to reveal God’s master plan or did the show’s creators not have any conclusive way to end the story? It makes The Sopranos ending look neat by comparison. I know there are those of you out there that actually like this ending. I cannot possibly see why but I understand that you are entitled to your opinion and I will respect that. Also, say what you will about Lost but the show’s conclusion does a better job of making the audience aware of it’s religious and spiritual undertones then Battlestar Galactica did. It really is a great shame because Battlestar Galactica did a great job of creating some truly compelling television and in my opinion it alos did a great job of paralleling the war on terrorism.

Perhaps it is too much to have asked that ultimately what could have doomed the Cylon race was their inability to have freewill and thus God’s presence could have been implemented into this show in a much more emotionally refreshing way.

Matthew Giordano

Jennifer Connelly

Jennifer Connelly: The Underappreciated Female Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp is considered by many to be one of the greatest actors of all time. He is also admired for resisting big blockbuster roles for years as he instead opted to choose roles in smaller more independent type films in which he played exceptionally eccentric characters. Some of the characters helped endear him to the public, Edward Scissorhands and other others remain bizarrely brilliant to this day Ed Wood, The Ninth Gate, Benny and Joon. Essentially his choice of roles allowed him to develop his acting ability and receive wonderful critical acclaim for years. It was not until The Pirates of The Caribbean the Curse of The Black Pearl that he truly became a legitimate blockbuster star and a true household name. I am aware of how popular he was especially amongst women when he was on 21 Jump Street. In fact I may have been one of the only young males in America who had his poster on my wall as a kid.

With that being said this is not a love letter to Johnny Depp this an attempt to prove that in many ways great female actors have been marginalized and overlooked for years.  It is no secret that male actors receive far more praise for the ability to portray different complex and engaging characters then most actresses do. Blame it on a patriarchal society, blame it on people thinking that Sandra Bullock is a good actress, (she talked with a slight southern accent in The Blind Side and people were like wow amazing) blame it on whatever you like. I would argue that the talented and truly exceptional Jennifer Connelly in many ways followed the same career path as Johnny Depp did and has created some of the most memorable film roles over the last thirty years.    

She first came to my attention in the bizarrely wonderful Labyrinth. A movie that I first saw at such a young age that I thought it was a figment of my imagination. I really thought it was all in my head and I actually developed a fear of mirrors for a while. It was not until years later that I saw the movie on HBO one day and realized that this film was in fact real and not something that was part of a bad dream that I had. I was both relieved by this realization and also even more disturbed when I realized that David Bowie was the Goblin King. Back to Jennifer Connelly she has never appeared in a prototypical blockbuster film, she was in The Day the Earth Stood Still remake which tried to be a blockbuster film and I have also tried to forget that she was in this complete disaster so we will call it a wash.

          When you examine her career she has not only been in some exceptionally wonderful movies but she has also created some fantastic characters. Requiem for a Dream, The Rocketeer, Dark City, the American remake of Dark Water, Mulholland Falls and of course A Beautiful Mind are just some of the great films that she has had significant roles in. What amazes me about Jennifer Connelly is her ability to play such diverse characters in such a wide array of films. She has also done a great job at for the most part in continuing to select roles that are both challenging and uniquely different. Also the fact that my wife’s name is Jennifer has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was in love with Jennifer Connelly as a child. At least I think so.

Matthew Giordano

Inception

 

Inception Not as Original as You Think

Inception was quite a rare film in that it truly achieved the status of a blockbuster film while breaking one of the most fundamental rules of Hollywood films. Hollywood films are designed to tell stories that audiences make an emotional connection with as they follow the protagonist through their journey. In the movie Inception it is impossible to decipher what actually happens and what is simply a dream. Hollywood usually has pretty clear cut rules that dream sequences must be labeled as such so that the audience does not confuse their place in the plot of the film that they are watching. For that aspect I admire the film.

However, I believe that one fundamental problem with the film is that without the audience knowing what they should care about that therefore there is no real emotional connection that can be made to any of the characters in the film. Quite simply the movie also becomes exceptionally boring at times because there is no tension in the film because nothing matters within the context of the film. Essentially, one scene has nothing to do with another and yes that makes the film’s dreamlike qualities work well but it also makes for a very boring narrative. Furthermore, plenty of other films have examined the idea of a dream within a dream. The first A Nightmare on Elm Street film in my opinion handles this concept in a far better way than Inception did in every way imaginable. This truly interesting plot device works in A Nightmare on Elm Street because you have just essentially watched the character of Nancy have a nightmare. The dream never ends!

Additionally, other films that have dealt with the concept of examining dreams are the exceptionally underrated Vanilla Sky, Jacob ’s ladder, and even The Wizard of Oz which people tend to forget about. In fact almost any David Lynch film examines the world of dreams in their own unique way. Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive are probably his two best films that examine how dreams and reality can often become entwined. If we extend this line of thinking further to say that Inception is a movie that makes us question what is truly “real” and what is not, than we can talk about a plethora of films that have examined this very concept.

 Total Recall, The Matrix, The Machinist, Dark City, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fight Club, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams and even the brilliant movie If all deal with the idea that reality is just a construct of the unconscious mind in some way shape or form. Perhaps I am just cynical but all of the films that I have mentioned I believe have examined the same concepts as Inception did in one form or another. I also believe that the films that I have mentioned have done a much better cinematic job at bringing forward the idea of examining the nature of dreams or the nature of what reality is then Inception did.  

I just feel that the sweeping critical acclaim that Inception received was a bit premature. Especially in cases when Inception was being praised for being a truly original film, when hopefully I have just proved that this is not the case at all. Perhaps this stance is not as controversial as my stance that Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi is a better movie then The Empire Strikes Back.

Matthew Giordano

The Walking Dead and the Rebirth of the American Western

                Never in the history of their existence has zombie related programming been so wildly popular throughout America. AMC has created an absolute ratings powerhouse with The Walking Dead that has changed the very idea of how many people a cable only network can reach. Almost fourteen million people watched the season finale and these numbers are impressive for network shows. This in turn has helped to push the networks to even try to compete with these cable shows by presenting grittier, darker shows for the American public and the world to consume. The recent Fox hit The Following is a good example of this. The question one should really ask is why is The Walking Dead so popular?

Is it simply that the quality of acting on the show is outstanding? Andrew Lincoln and David Morrissey are two particular standouts in my opinion. Is it that the show has a great story? Is it that there is a fascination with a post apocalyptic world that has developed very strongly amongst the culture since September 11? I would like to present some food for thought. Perhaps the true popularity of The Walking Dead lies in the fact that is has resurrected one of cinemas greatest art forms and an art form that has typically been seen as being distinctly American. To put it simply The Walking Dead is a very prototypical western.

All of the standard generic tropes of the western film are present in The Walking Dead. For one thing the iconography (visuals) constantly reminds us that we are in fact watching a western. For one thing Rick is a sheriff whom wears a cowboy hat and rides a horse. In arguably one of the shows finest moments this imagery is straight out of almost any western film that you could name. Additionally, other common traits of the western are gunfights, saloons, the empty vast landscape, the dastardly villain. These are all heavily present in The Walking Dead. Shane fulfilled this role in the first two seasons of the show with The Governor taking over this role in the third season. In season two of the show the character of Rick undergoes a major transformation when he blows away two guns in an abandoned saloon that is straight out of so many classic western films.

The most important and arguably the most distinctively “American” aspect of the western is the idea of conquering the frontier. This is one of the key myths in America’s mythology and the western was one of the best art forms that expanded upon this idea. Essentially, so many western films portray the American frontiersmen as good and noble people trying to civilize the hostile and uncivilized world that they find themselves in. This is exactly what is going on in The Walking Dead. Of course the “savages” who filled this landscape were Native Americans who were demonized in most of these films. John Ford’s The Searchers remains probably the best Western film to really examine this idea of what the “American’s” really thought about the Native Americans that they encountered. In the world of The Walking Dead the zombies take the place of the Native Americans as the savages who inhabit this vast landscape and are a constant threat to the settlers of this new world.

What makes The Walking Dead so fascinating to me is that it has reinvented the western film and it’s themes, plots and visual imagery make it very clear. Yet I think that many of the fans of the show have not reached this conclusion. I know that several of my students thought about this show in a completely new way once I brought this idea to them. Many of them said that they would never watch a western film because they cannot stand them and yet the absolutely love The Walking Dead. I am not proclaiming to be the only person to recognize this connection but nevertheless I would argue that the show’s popularity especially in America is very much rooted in it’s deep connection to western films. I also wonder if people needed to be reconnected with these myths and ideals after an event like September 11 or if perhaps since western films are in such great decline if the timing was simply right to bring back this ideology in a new and truly creative way.

Matthew Giordano