That’s the end. The final episode of Big Love aired on March 20, and I watched every episode. Thank you for Big Love. Thank you to creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Sheffer, thank you to HBO, thank you to the writers and cast and crew, thank you one and all.

Watching BL, I frequently gaped, laughed or sighed. More than once, I bawled heavily. There were some missteps, as with most every TV show, and there were some mistakes central to the topic at hand. One minor character who was very active in her LDS faith would have said “Oh my gosh,” there. One major character mispronounced “Melchizedek” and “temple recommend” both. And, as I said, a few times it wandered in ways had nothing to do with its unique topic and drifted into unfortunate cheesy melodrama. But not very often. More significantly, it was well-made, gripping and pretty damn good. I will miss it.

Some Mormons are opposed to Big Love, whether they’ve seen it or not. I hope there aren’t too many like this, but I know of more than one who, because they’ve been told to be offended by it, by golly they are. Perhaps they imagine every episode over there on HBO is filled with nudity, cursing and wanton mockery of things Mormons hold dear. Nope. There’s a very small amount of that spread over 53 episodes. You could cut 2 entire scenes and 2 seconds of 2 other scenes and all that would be gone, so that’s not really much to get up in arms about now, is it? If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, that’s cool, but if you’re opposed to the message of this show, it seems to me you are opposed to good drama and opposed to a strong message of family, of faith, of being different, of love. Consider the irony.

Back to the motivation to write this post — which is that I will miss it. I’m going to miss seeing things on TV you don’t see on TV all that much. Multiple wives, yes, but also sayings like, “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out” (Nicki was always my crazy favorite), and references to “those GD protesters.” Sigh, sigh and sigh. With big gratitude, I bid you a big, fond farewell, Big Love!

Pretty much only Mr White and Jesse have any lines. More significantly: It’s hilarious (for a while). I am laughing out loud and BB is not a Laugh Out Loud show. BB is a Freak the F Out show.

Anybody else remember and lurve this lovely episode about killing a fly? From pre-credits thingy, to whacking each with an impromptu flyswatter, this episode rawks. (Insiders, read this, too.)

It’s written by Ginsburg & McIntyre, and you can follow their shenanigans more on the Twitter.

Also, by 8:26 I had been astounded and had shed a tear. I love this (horrible) show! Catch up! Watch! Break! Ing! Bad!

My love of BB had actually caused me to stop watching the show. You know, keep a few episodes on the TiVo because watching them all means it’s over, and you don’t want it to end. So now, in glorious anticipation of season 3, I have plunged into the end of season 2.

Episode 11 starts with horrifying violence from a youth. Dear lord, I hope New Mexico doesn’t have such horrible murderous children. As for the rest of it, let me just say this: “Bob Odenkirk!!!!!! Anna Gunn prego singing — schwing!!!!!!”

Episode 12: Whoa. More Krysten Ritter!!!!!! and more John de Lancie!!!!!! Then there was the me watching the very end saying, “Holy sh*t.” Whoa.

Episode 13, episode the last: It starts with the B&W montage that reminds me once again of Sunset Boulevard, a montage we’ve seen a few variations of throughout the season. It is awesome. Perhaps you have to be into the show to know it’s awesome, like viewing a subtle work of art you might pass by at the museum if you didn’t see on the plaque that it’s by Famous Artist. This montage of doom segues into an opening scene of more death. It’s grisly. And it’s an awesome season finale.

And now … I await season 3. Bring it! (And please use actual element symbols for every credited named. Michael Slovis deserves as much.) Season 3 happens on Sunday the 21st!

Caprica, I can’t get into it. Despite my deep deep love for BSG. I have to say the strongest SyFy show now is SG-U.

Archer is a well-done cartoon on FX. People aren’t talking about it in my world, but they should. TV-MA ratings and cartoons can be a strange combo for viewers that aren’t immature men like myself, but check it out.

Modern Family is strong, strong, strong.

The Super Bowl was awesome.

And the two shows I never, ever miss continue to be The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, because they make me a better person.

What shows do you never miss?

1. Any scene with cheerleaders wearing cheerleader outfits in it pretty much sucks. Painfully clichéd, caricatured and shallow, especially when there’s more than one girl wearing her cheerleader outfit around school.

2. The musical numbers don’t sound like what they look like. Big problem. Huge problem! Come on — give us cred. We are smart viewers, we can handle it. Many (most?) of the actors on this show can really sing quite well, so let us see what it would sound like if we were present in the scene as we see it. Instead, we see obvious lip synching, and we hear instruments that make no sense. Not right! (Please note: I am not talking about fun, surreal moments like when the football team dances to “If you liked it then you should’ve put a ring on it.” Nope. That’s great. It was staged and we bought it. But almost all other numbers where you hear and see something that doesn’t add up: these make the show less than it could be. If you show four vocalists, let us hear four vocalists in the moment. Etc.)

So much good. So much potential, also, to be that much better.

New to the series in this episode, Bob Odenkirk plays Saul Goodman, a sleazy lawyer introduced via low-budget local commercials that play while two other characters get it on. Bob Odenkirk does excellent guest-star work in this episode, and his character could easily be with us for several episodes more. I kind of recognize Bob, but looking at his IMDb page, I realize that it’s more accurate to say that although he’s worked a ton, I have no idea who he is. That’s the kind of actorly success I aspire to! (For non-actors, that may sound ironic. It’s not.)

Also, I’m liking Todd VanDerWerff’s write-up on this episode.

Breaking Bad is a well-made show! Will it win the Primetime Emmy on September 20th? I’m rooting for it, along with Big Love and Dexter.

Okay, seriously. Damages, House and Mad Men shouldn’t win because of the simple fact that for all of them, the previous season was better. Dropping a notch rules you out in my book, even if still very good. Lost? Please.

That leaves Big Love, Breaking Bad and Dexter. All so good! I can’t choose! Better go do some more “research.” Where’s the remote?

On the good side, it was different. A lot of the top shows are so similar, and this show was different. I grant that that might be good in and of itself.

But the apparent sense of insight from listing amounts of time in accuracy up to the second; the repeated use of “The facts were these” as our narrator’s segue; and the very fact that the narrator has a British accent: all these actually give a false sense of insight. All these turn off the thoughtful viewer. And so many scenes are painfully created in a way that is very far from reality. A strange and unholy blend of attempts to be very real and yet very false in the above, in casting, in art design and color, in dialog, etc. This is why it never really worked for me. Also, it’s a little too copycat if you’ve seen a certain extremely famous French movie. Also, the cartoon voice of Ms. Chenoweth (and some guest actors) is a little too, well, cartoony. Also, the new veneers and reworked bangs that Anna Friel has started wearing strike me as contrived. Also, the preposterous setup of lovers that can never touch — that’s going nowhere unless they jump the shark.

Okay, enough. Did you love it? Tell me why. I’m listening.

Okay, back to English — after saying that cuate means comrade, equal, some dude from where you’re from. The lyrics to their Black and Blue (this episode’s title, too) are sung in a vocal range akin to speaking. I wonder if that’s how they always roll. But the lyrics are translated sloppily, with “potent” instead of the better “powerful,” and the all-too-common mistake of using a reverse apostrophe at the start of a word to indicate the omission of letters. “Talkin’ ‘bout” should be “Talkin’ ’bout.” ¡Drives me crazy! All of this is preview, probably with Bryan Cranston’s stand-in, so let’s move on past the first 4 minutes.

Some more teacher. Then lots of fallout from last week’s intense episode, rehashing the kid, the ATM, the sound. Then a great line for those moments when a grey lie is needed: “You didn’t hear that from me.” Got to remember that one!

Later:
“I’m a blowfish?”
“You are a blowfish.”
“I’m a blowfish.”
“Say it like you mean it!”
“I am a blowfish!”

Finally, for a second, I thought I saw a scene not shot on location. One moment where Dean Norris, the poor schmuck that doesn’t habla the Spanish, looks over the valley seems to be filmed on set. Quickly forgotten, because s#|t goes down. ¡Caracho! Things are getting malo.

In this episode, we see further how the bad in Jesse‘s and Walter‘s lives creeps along, spreads further. Jesse has to go protect his drug racket, and pulls out the revolver to do so. Skyler thanks their benefactors for the money her husband didn’t get from them, so a lie will be unraveled? This is the Act I setup, counterbalanced by an everyday event, a long chemistry lecture about carbon and diamonds and H. Tracy Hall, on the normal first day of school … where not everything can really be normal now, can it?

When we return to Jesse, he’s still waiting for his victims, but playing peekaboo with their unfortunate kid. Cute and dirty. Later we see — and even more so, hear — one of the grossest deaths ever, but it was particularly satisfying, too. How easily done, how deliciously deserved.

At the end I thought that in this episode a young boy plays a key role and this cute young actor never speaks. Well written, well acted, well shot. (Carmen Serano and Jessica Hecht give awesome guest star work, too.) The boy seems to be a parallel to the work Mark Margolis played earlier this season, non-speaking and brilliant acting at the opposite end of life’s spectrum. Heartbreaking situations. And beautiful.

The writing is so beautiful when you stop and think about how they are weaving in all these bad things, keeping the show fresh, a mix of expected and unexpected problems when you get involved over your head with drugs and such. The bad is beautiful to me on this show. With one exception: Skyler and Walter seem to be going nowhere in there scenes together because their scenes together are getting repetitive.

DP MiChael Slovis’s credit is still out of whack, periodically speaking. And this episode is directed by Johan Renck. Re is the symbol for the chemical element rhenium, a rare metal, rarer than molybdenum and often found with it. Okay, you know what? I don’t really know where any metal comes from, let alone molybdenum. Oh sure, I’ve heard of mining, but in my tangible life it’s as relevant as alchemy.

On with the show. I noted that the DEA’s office (the excellent Dean Norris plays our main man there), shows an address in reverse lettering on the façade as they leave the lobby of 400 Gold SW. That building is shown here on Google Maps. Nice location scouting: a building without windows could well be a goverment building.

Did anybody else notice the vertical distance between the waist of Jesse (the excellent AAron Paul) with his lowriders and the waist of Jane (played by Krysten Ritter) with her long legs, skinny frame and high pants? I think her pants’ waistline was 2 feet higher off the ground than Jesse’s. It was a weird juxtaposition. But a good scene. I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing a lot of Jane.

Later in this episode, an extended musical montage thingy. Wha?!?! So not this show! But the unappealing characters therein: so this show.

It’s such good acting, and it’s all about character. That’s why I like it and recommend it highly. When I heard the sparse opening music, it took me back to my Newton apartment where I watched the first season. Good memories. I’m not going to blog about every episode like I’m committed to doing with Breaking Bad, but I may write from time to time.

The immediately we jump into the most mundane family scene ever in the history of BB. Great. We know what that means. The lull before the storm. The storm in this case turns out to be pretty passive aggressive. In short: this is an excellent episode revolving around family, or the lack thereof. And now I’m almost caught up!

It opens with a scene with actors, unlike the first 2 episodes. Somewhere I heard that Bryan Cranston very much likes to work with his pants off — and many, many scenes have found him in his BVD’s for this series. But you get him baked in the desert — literally, from heat not drugs — and he’ll even lose the briefs. So it begins.

Guest star Michael ShAmus Wiles: for your opening credit, you get americium, the most patriotic element. Tom KiEsche: you get einsteinium, an excellent element — and by the way I think we have a mutual friend. MiChael Slovis: you get my continued apologies for your nonexistent element.

Tonight I learned a new word: fugue. Of course, I know the word from music, but its second definition, related to fugitive, is new to me:

fugue |fjug| noun (Psychiatry) a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity, often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.

Sometimes a fugue-state episode does seem kind of tempting, I must say. Flee your problems! Head to the high chaparral! Is that so wrong? But eventually I’d come back, if only for another fine episode of Breaking Bad.

Script highlight: Very funny “Whole Foods” line! Minor complaint: You could never reinsert an IV like that! Question of the week: What does “Bit by a Dead Bee,” this episode’s title, mean?

Dear Clients,

I wanted to take a moment and give you a number of important updates. Before I begin, however, I wish to tell you that I am so very proud of you for your dogged determination during these most difficult times. Hollywood is being challenged on multiple fronts — labor uncertainty, paradigm shifting and the ‘great recession.’

I know a lot of you are getting antsy to get out more, and frankly many of you are in a tight financial pinch; as such, I wanted to describe to you the current climate in LA and the factors influencing the current environment.

1. SAG STALEMATE:
Since the SAG contract expired on June 30, 2008, there have been few to no studio feature films (this does not include companies such as Lionsgate and the Weinstein Company who are not in AMPTP and as such have completion agreements). Some analysts say there are up to 200 feature films on hold. Around September, we started to see a mass movement of film actors to TV projects. Many of my “name” actors have done one-day guest stars (this is very typical right now), and we are seeing a number of guest-star level actors doing co-star roles. Remember, from November 2007 to March 2008, due to the writer’s strike, again there were no feature films shot. So for the film actor, there has only been 4 months of work in the last 17 months.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Due to the lack of studio feature film production, both film and TV actors are now competing for a limited number of jobs in the episodic and pilot environments.

2. PILOT SEASON:
During the writer’s strike of 2007-2008, studios adapted and used the void to eliminate pilot season as we know it. Gone are the days of hundreds of pilots. In fact, this year, there are only 67 pilots to have registered for production — of which only about 35 have been green lit for production. (See Economy pinches TV pilots.)

And this year, due again to a sagging economy, studios and networks believe that by committing named stars to their projects, they will receive more money from this year’s up-fronts from ad agencies. They are banking on star power to leverage better buys at the all important up-fronts. So, stars and pop-stars like Richard Dreyfuss, Chevy Chase, Brittany Snow, Elle McPherson, Rebecca Romijn, Ashley Simpson, Scott Caan, Skeet Ulrich, and proven TV talents like Kelsey Grammar, Eric McCormick, John McGinley, Joel McHale, Jenna Elfman, Donald Faison, Maura Tierney, Peter Krauss, Craig T. Nelson, Dax Shepherd, etc…. You do the math, 37 pilots … top stars being sought….
BOTTOM LINE: The conflagration of the economy and a lack of roles being cast, means that this pilot season may be even more competitive than the concurrent regular TV market right now. So those of you who have gotten auditions for series regulars… feel great about that!

3. TV:
While TV has been steady, again due to the conflagration of film and named actors doing guest-star roles, we have seen a horrible trickle down. Many guest stars are now doing co-stars, and co-stars/developmental actors (those with less than 5 primetime credits) frankly are not getting seen much. One CD recently told me that she had over 25 women who would be considered ‘working actors’ going for a co-star role.
BOTTOM LINE: Again, due to the abundance of name and working actors, many less-developed actors are not even being seen right now.

4. ECONOMIC IMPACT I, THE EROSION OF QUOTES/RATES:
There are really three major impacts to actors during this economic crunch. First, we are seeing the erosion of quotes. Due to the availability of so many talented actors, CD’s and Producers are in the driver’s seat in negotiations. When they say, “Well, we got someone else who will do it for less,” they ain’t kidding. I have spoken to a number of my peers who have confirmed this erosion of pay for their actors. In short, right now, quotes are eroding and for many, the minimum has become the maximum pay.

5. ECONOMIC IMPACT II, THE CONCLUSION OF SAG STALEMATE:
Many are hoping that with the end of this stalemate, Hollywood will get back to normal. I have to say, that I am not one who necessarily believes this. First off, due to the economic conditions, most studios have lost their millions of dollars from hedge funds; and European, Asian and Middle Eastern money has dried up. Even Stephen Spielberg has had to beg, borrow and steal to get his company financed…. And it wasn’t anywhere near what he originally asked for. I believe that, even after the SAG stalemate is over, there is probably not enough money for 50 Studio Feature Films to be done right out of the gate.
BOTTOM LINE: While this will help us move towards normalcy, it will not be the cash cow some people think it will be. One side note, is that I expect that more formulaic projects will be down out the gate as Studios will be less likely to take significant risks since most of these projects will be financed by both the studio and their investors. In short, you will see more Iron Mans, Animation, and SAWs… they are money in the bank when you factor in ratios, etc.

6. ECONOMIC IMPACT III, OVERALL STATEMENT OF ENVIRONMENT:
It is important that everyone follow the economic conditions closely. I know it is easy to be skeptical over the studios, networks, cablers, production houses, show runners, etc, losing money, but it is a cold-hard fact right now. These entities are truly in a difficult spot. If you have read much lately, there have been dramatic cut backs at every studio and network, from firings to asking show runners to cut between 2-7% of their budgets (not to mention the 25+% cutback shows like Sarah Silverman were asked to swallow recently). Furthermore, these networks and studios are largely20owned by conglomerates who have lost in the billions over the last 6 months. When I attended NATPE in January, all the talk was how to get ‘thinner.’ Everything is getting tight. Budgets, marketing, staffing, etc., and this will undoubtedly impact the actor. Also, the foreign sales market (where much of the TV and film money is made, is being hit hard by the erosion of the US dollar. So these entities are not able to recoup the costs they were in better days by the one-time explosion of the foreign markets.
BOTTOM LINE: The economic conditions are forcing the industry to be as ‘thin’ as possible.

7. COMMERCIALS — INDUSTRY AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS:
One analyst said last year, that 2008 was the worst commercial market since maybe 1974. I would not argue with this. Think about it: three of the top products/services for ad agencies are banks, cars and other financial services — all of which were struck down in 2008/early 2009 by this recession. This was confirmed when news struck that even the Super Bowl did not sell out advertising this year. The good news is that the advertising industry tends to be one of the first ones to be negatively impacted by a recession, but one of the first to grow as the recession moves to an end as advertisers of products want to start accumulating market share before the turn of the economy. Another impact relates to the overall conditions of the TV/film/pilot situation. Many strong actors have made enough money on TV/film, etc so that they have not had to do commercials in years. Due to the last few years and the lack of work, many top actors are now back in the commercial market; thus again, causing a logjam in casting.
BOTTOMLINE: The economic slowdown has caused a dramatic decrease in ad sales and the lack of work has caused more actors to re-enter the commercial market.

THE GOOD NEWS!!

Okay, so that is where we are today. You know me, I try to always call it straight as I see it. So, I am not going to sugar-coat this either. I anticipate that 2009 will be a tough year overall for actors (and agencies). First off, the economy will not likely get straightened out until at least the 3rd to 4th quarter of this year and so all the factors above will remain in place th rough most, if not all, of 2009. Secondly, until the labor situation gets straightened out, we will not be seeing dramatic amount of film production, and this seems to be dragging along as well (as we enter the 8th month of the stalemate – it was announced today that SAG is thinking now about taking AMPTP to court for anti-trust violations). But again, even if it was finalized, there is not enough investor money to see the film production level normalize and increase for most, if not all, of 2009. Also, since movies cost around $40 for two (tickets, popcorn, etc) — this is not a recession proof field anymore. During our last significant recession, there were few choices for guilty pleasures to get away from the stress of our times — so many people flocked to the theatres. Not so these days! One can go to the web, TV, cable (not around in 1974, 1982, 1988 much), video games, Netflix, RedBox (movie for a $1). So studios are probably not in any big rush to make films — as people cannot afford this once cheap diversion – better to divert for a few bucks to all the many other sources of guilty pleasures. OK, so that didn’t sound like good news….

The good news is that there are some paradigm shifts occurring that make 2010-2012 look like it might be one of the most prolific times in Hollywood history. Due to technological developments, there are more platforms being developed than ever. The internet is driving millions of new viewers each year. Zillion is going to transform the way we view advertising. For those who don’t know, it has recently been unveiled by the maker of Real Player and the ‘mouse.’ It is a system that makes you watch ads before downloading movies (they already have 14,000 Titles ready for download), TV, other forms of entertainment to your TV Screen. However, the consumer can choose the products they want to see (let’s say you go retail clothing and watch a Macy’s ad and love the jacket; you can immediately click on the ad/jacket and go directly to their website where you can buy it). Also, you earn points by watching the commercials that you can use towards purchases. Furthermore, Sony and others are now selling TVs that wirelessly connect to your computer, so you can download TV/films at anytime from your computer (websites like Hula, Netflix, etc.) directly to your TV. In short, technology is making more platforms which will require more content than ever. Also, cablers are all embracing doing scripted shows, some have up to 5 shows this year… again, more content is needed and thus more actors!

BOTTOM LINE: More platforms = more content = more actors!

So as long as SAG/AFTRA can protect your rates and jurisdictional issues, there will be more good compensated work than ever in Hollywood by 2010-2012.

(An opening credit still says “Director of Photography MiChael Slovis.”)

Extended first scene with Hank, the only series regular we see for several minutes. It’s an episode written for Dean Norris, it seems.

Excellent non-speaking work by Mark Margolis (pictured). And every time you think it’s going to turn into MacGyver with chemistry, they mix it up on you. Oh, that’s what’s going on with the car. Okay … brutal … but good episode!

It’s one of those behind-the-scenes shows. This is good homework for the actor in me, but here are a few notes:

• It’s good to hear them talk about the influence on the show of 9/11 — not that you need to hear them say it — and grey hats versus black and white hats. (Will that reference to old westerns ever stop making sense, I can’t help but wonder.)
• Note to writers everywhere: They sold the show with making the president and also Starbuck women.
• Kudos to the SFX peeps. Those long decks … turns out they’re fake.
• Music: Bear McCreary is named Bear. That’s all you really need to know. There’s the long hair and the goatee. And all the synths. Note: Orchestral elements were forbidden initially.
• “That Saul Tigh would be one of the final five, I did not see coming. That was a total surprise,” says Michael Hogan, portrayer of Saul Tigh. “This is not a wise decision.”
• Nice to hear their cluelessness about the Fifth Cylon, how it morphed into what it became.
• “All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.” This is a line from Disney’s Peter Pan. Ha!
• Lucy Lawless doesn’t get BSG. She gets herself, however.
• Jamie Bamber should consider speaking in an American accent all the time. Really.

Oh. Yeah. I understand the finale has aired. I’ll get to that soon … including a summary of how wrong my predictions were.