Bravely Waving to and Fro

I've talked about hand waving, its uses and its troubles, before. This post is the kind of hand waving you do when you're tired from production rewrites and really just want to spend some time watching people say things you wrote and make them seem better. So in no particular order here's a couple of chunks of red meat for you to chew on:

It's appropriate, as my last episode of Blood Ties goes to the floor today, to point to this lovely essay on the blog of writer Doris Egan (House, Smallville, Numbers) about what TV is really like when you work on a show:

It's not unusual to see a writer/producer running through the halls during prep, hurrying to casting meetings, tone meetings, production meetings; rushing back to put out new pages; rushing off again before somebody drives somewhere without them -- because nothing can wait. And once shooting does begin, the train only goes faster. There's no time to do anything but field each potential disaster as it comes, and if something goes wrong while shooting a scene -- well, that's it, that's what the world's going to see. There's no budget and no time to re-do anything...

I remember watching an episode of Smallville where an actress said the word "ancestors" instead of "descendants." People made fun of the writer, but not for a second did I think that was what was in the script -- if it were, about fifty people would have commented on it before shooting. I can well believe it happened while shooting the scene, however. Actors are not machines, though they're expected to perform as if they were; and the wrong words will come out way more often than you think. Consider: they're only given about fifteen minutes to rehearse, a little bit of time while lighting's being set up, and then they're tossed into the lion's den. And then there's the pressure of filming -- and it is pressure; if someone were to point a camera at me I'd forget my name. And it's not as if we were asking them to simply perform a task; no, we're saying, "And by the way, could you be wonderfully talented and entertaining while you do that? Starting… now." I'm continually in awe of how consistently actors take all this straw and hand you gold back...

And the train speeds on. Thirteen, fourteen, sometimes fifteen hours a day. You've got enough time to drive home, wind down, get your six hours of sleep, and hurry back...

As you can tell from this, I hope, my respect for television directors, crews, and actors is enormous, and whenever I hear rumbles from the heartland that suggest those Hollywood folks are lollin' around by their pools getting stoned, I think, if only you knew. The Puritan work ethic is alive here more than anyplace I've ever seen, and I worked on Wall Street during the 90s, when they assumed associates were there to put in endless hours. Try going to a party where television people are gathered; by 11:00 pm they're on their way home, because it's going to be a long day tomorrow. The usual end of the workday, for a writer, is about 7:00-8:00 pm; and we're spoiled and cosseted children of privilege compared with the production crew. Whenever we're filming an episode of mine, I look at the people around me and think how remarkable they are, and how fortunate I am to be in their company.

Amen to that. The full post is really worth reading, as is everything on Egan's LiveJournal. She's a self-described "process nerd," which is what every TV writer needs to be, at least on some level.

Then, I thought to myself, you really shouldn't let the premiere of The Riches go by without saying something about it. But then there's Allesandra Stanley's review in the NY Times, which says it far better than I ever could:

So much research is devoted to studying whether violence on television desensitizes children. Yet nobody seems to worry that adults are becoming inured to excellence.

“The Riches,” a new series that begins tonight on FX, could serve as the control in a much-needed experiment. It’s so compelling it deserves to be a hit, generating as much media attention and Internet chatter as “Deadwood,” “Nip/Tuck” or “24.” (It would be blasphemy to invoke “The Sopranos,” since no show is that good, not even “The Sopranos.”)

So if “The Riches” does poorly, then it can only mean that there is too much high-quality television driving away the bad.

Stanley's tongue is planted firmly in-cheek, but not too far. I was just blown away by this premiere. Not just Eddie Izzard, but the freshness of the story area (I've never seen anything about American Travelers, or Roma...) The con-angle has been played before, sure, but the culture of these people has not; and the oddness, the alien-nature of this world, to me, is everything that Big Love wasn't. I want to see more of how these people see the world: and our world, too.

When Hugh offers Wayne a job as a lawyer in his real-estate empire, Wayne isn’t sure what “in house,” means and repeats the words thoughtfully until Hugh supplies the rest, “in-house counsel.” But Wayne cements the deal with a con man’s bluff, taming the bullying Hugh with a game of Russian roulette.

“A good lawyer makes you believe the truth,” Wayne says after aiming a gun at his future employer’s head. “But Hugh, you know what a great lawyer does? He makes you believe the lie.”

Hugh gives him the job, telling Doug that he’s a sick fellow, “and I like that in a liar.”

Viewers will also learn to like these liars.

“The Riches” is that rare thing, a dark, sophisticated series that speaks to our most childlike natures. Just as little boys and girls dress up as the Little Mermaid or pretend they are enrolled at Hogwarts, the Malloys tempt even stand-up adults to assume a new identity and live it to the fullest — on someone else’s MasterCard.

Well, I can't do better than that. So I'll just say The Riches is worth watching, and I'll probably have more to say once I've seen a few episodes.

I also think in all the "avenge me while you see my ghost" subgenre (Medium, Ghost Whisperer) Raines clearly stands out. Two words: Jeff Fucking Goldblum, bitches. The twist got me. It all got me. It's new on the list.

And finally, if you're in the USA, tonight you get to see my non-sexual hetero mancrush spread his wings. The much anticipated This American Life TV show premieres on Showtime tonight. David Carr had a nice profile of host Ira Glass in the Times.

That's it. Now, I'm going to watch people work harder than me.