We’re Going to Cambridge, England!
Summer 2012

(June 30th-August 11th)
6 weeks!

[Go for the classes—stay for the Olympics!]

OCC English professor Raymond Obstfeld will be taking a group of 40 students to live on campus at the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

Cambridge alumni include John Milton, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, A.A. Milne, William Wordsworth, and Sylvia Plath, as well as the more contemporary Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat), Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie (House), and the members of Monty Python.

Students will live at Girton College, and attend OCC courses offered by Prof. Obstfeld.  All units earned are transferable. Students who have participated in this program in the past describe it as “life-changing” and “the best time I’ve ever had.” You, too, will have the time of your life.

Important Information:
· Cost: approx. $7,745 .00
(still one of the cheapest trips available!)
· Cost includes:
· roundtrip airfare on Virgin Airlines
· room with daily maid service
· breakfast and dinner
· weekend in London with tours, theater tickets, and hotel
· Credits are transferable
· OCC Courses offered: Eng. 101 (Advanced Comp), Eng. 148 (British Film as Literature), Eng. 122 (Novel Workshop), Eng. 127 (Scriptwriting). Others available.

Special Attraction:TheSummer Olympics will be held in London while we are there (40 minutes away.) 

This is a great opportunity! LINK

If you are interested in joining us, send an email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or you can apply online HERE

Raymond Obstfeld is the author of over 40 published books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry as well asa dozen screenplays. His most recent works are

On the Shoulders of Giants, a New York Times bestseller co-authored with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the suspense novel Anatomy Lesson, the forthcoming thriller Assassin’s Apprentice, and the forthcoming children’s book What Color Is My World with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

$100 discount for applications and deposits received by June 30th, 2011! 

Links:

Professor Obstfeld:  Raymond Obstfeld
Apply Online:  HERE
Olympics Website:  LINK

 Hollywood has always been a town of trends. The risk of failure, financial uncertainty and loosing money has made modern industry execs no braver that a one month bunny rabbit.

With the economy still weak investors are hard to come by and those around don't wish to gamble too hard. But then there's the old saying: "The show must go on"... And therefore the industry has to make products. T.V. has been, for the last years, the best area of quality vs. production the industry has had to offer. Film has been great but more driven to the teen market. T.V. has settled with the more mature demographic who enjoys it's costume dramas more that caped men behind colorful explosions.

In a recent writing class I had an idea of Western series, because since the great Deadwood, there hasn't been any western series and I thought it was prime for a comeback. The success of the True Grit remake, I thought, would certainly help my case.The idea was certainly entertained but there was the doubt that a period acton/drama would have any legs.

Well, maybe I was ahead of the curb early this year, or the curb has just kicked me in the head because in recent months there has been a firestorm of T.V. projects all around the good 'ol wild west.

I'm sure Cowboys and Aliens bad B.O. has scared all film executives into stop green lighting western projects (even causing the demise of the new Lone Ranger remake at Warners to star Johnny Depp as Tonto, with the Pirates of the Carribean production team behind it). But that hasn't been the case on the other side of the fence in T.V. land. A slew of productions have been ordered by ABC, CBS and other cable outlets.

Westerns are a great genre if done right. True Grit is a great example and Cowboys and Aliens a bad one. Not that I'm against "mash-ups" but it has to be done right. Cowboys and Aliens had some very weak ploting issues and the whole "Alien technology thing" is just getting boring. People are getting tired and voting with their money. But if you give me a great character, fighting even bigger bad characters with gunslinging, fast horse riding and shoot ' em ups I'm there! Just don't mix my six shooter with a tri-cord.

Also remember that one of the best selling video games of last year was a western. That means that the kiddy demographic is already sold.

So here are quick list of the new shows that may or not be coming to you this or next year.

ABC - "HANGTOWN" - Created by Battlestar Gallactica and Caprica writer Matt Roberts (whom had already a deal to remake The Wild Wild West series last year and fell through) it centers around a border town in the 1900's when the railroad is expanding and it has more of CSI twist. A tough as nails Marshal who uses his instincts to solve crimes, an east coast Dr. who comes to the town to put his knowledge of forensics to play and a "sassy" female reported hell bend on sending dime novel stories to her editors about the wild frontier. This will have to be great on the character side to create some interest since it's just CSI in the wild west.

"GUNSLINGER" by writer/ producer David Zabel very little is known of this project but some speculate it's a take on the 1960's series "Have gun will travel" - Again if they don't get the tone right a big yawn will be in order.

AMC - 'HELL ON WHEELS" - Entails the story of the building of the Pacific Railroad in the 1860's. This has the promise of another Deadwood. Again characters tell the whole story but I doubt AMC will come through in the budget as HBO did for Deadwood to make it an all around contender.

TNT - "GATEWAY" - A more family oriented drama about three bothers getting their "revenge on" by battling the areas corrupt cattle barron who gunned down their pa'. This seems also ho-hum.

CBS - " RALPH LAMB" about the 1960's Las Vegas lawman who dispensed justice on horseback. Has the tone of a Mad Men meets Tombstone, with some showgirls thrown in. Could be interesting.

NBC - Not to be left out of the trend, is coming out with a series by "Friday night lights" producer Peter Berg, but this series is told from a female's perspective of the west. On this one, I don't know what to say...

Interesting that the big cable boys, HBO, SHOWTIME and STARZ haven't gotten in on this. Maybe they're being smart and want to see the bodies on the floor to later home in on the contenders.

So there you go folks, again one disclaimer. Some of these shows have been ordered, some are on contention of casting and others may not pass the studio hatchet so we'll have to see which one comes out.

May the fastest pen win.

It's 2:00am and I'm just getting back from my first day at the newly minted West Coast Film Festival.  Full details as to pricing and scheduling are available on the their website HERE but I thought I'd jot down impressions before I turned in.

Professional - how else to say it?  Not a hitch in the giddy-up anywhere.  Run by Regency Theaters and overseen by (I'm proud to say ) OCSWA board member, Larry Porricelli, who is the Regency Theaters General Mgr., it couldn't have been more effortless to buy tickets, park and attend.  To a person, the people working the theater and the festival were incredibly helpfull and personable.  You get the sense that they are crafted from the mold of Mr. Porricelli himself.

The venue is the gorgeous Regency Franciscan Plaza in San Juan Capistrano which features not only the normal theater amenities but also a bar/restaurant on the top floor that tonight was taken over by the cast, crew and fans of the movie "Double Tap" starring Fabain Carrillo and Robert LaSardo ("Nip/Tuck") which was having it's world premiere that evening.

The screening of the actioneer was well-represented by cast and crew including some of the stunt men from Shuyokan Dojo in Costa Mesa, who worked in the fight scenes.  Mr. Carrillo, among other things, is a black belt at the dojo and he used a lot of the same men with who he works out on a daily basis for his stunt crew.

Mr. Carrillo has said "If you can you must.  And if you must you will" and truer words were never spoken for this independent filmmaker whose journey to complete this film has the epic overtones of Odysseus' journey.  We'll try to grab him for an interview at some point in the future to talk in detail about the years of struggle to get his film back from business partners who were less than upfront.

But back to the festival itself...

Unlike a lot of film festivals, being on scene had a warm and fuzzy feeling to it. (especially after a few bourbons at Vito's up the street.)  Perhaps it was mingling with many of Mr. Carrillo's friends and co-stars, including Pepe Serna ("Scarface") and Mr. LaSardo, who, despite his sometimes severe look was gracious and charming to all who approached.  

But everyone, without fail, was really enjoying the place and the moments.  It reminded me of the many premieres I've attended in Los Angeles.  It had that same fun and positive energy to it that you get when a crew is finished with a film and is rightfully taking some bows for their hard work - even better in the context of the film festival.

The festival presents as an odd, albeit interesting, one.  Featuring older films like "Ben Hur" and actual Looney Tunes cartoons, it also has the latest in features including the aforementioned "Double Tap" and the widely anticipated "Warrior" from Lion's Gate which won't open officially for another few weeks.  Attendees can see it this coming Sunday (8/25) at the festival along with "Spork" and "Wuss" throughout the run of the festival.

Having attended other festivals, new ones, old ones, I can say unequivocally that you'd never know this one was in its inaugural year both for the wide and pleasingly eclectic selection, and the smooth operation.  Didn't I say it at the beginning of this review?  Professional.

The festival runs through Sunday, 8/25 and has a lot of fun and surprising selections with special guests like Mrs. Gene Autry and the L.A. Angels of Anaheim players scheduled for attendance.

Ticket information is available HERE and HERE.

Go!  You'll love the ambiance and the selection.

Do Facebook and Netflix have something big in the works? The Washington Post states that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has signed up with the board of Facebook, successfully melding the energy of the internet and through mail movie subscription service with the biggest internet social network on earth. Hastings joins Netscape founder Marc Andreesen, PayPal co-founder Thiel and Washington Post Co. chair Donald Graham on the Facebook panel. Article source: Netflix CEO Hastings joins Facebook corporate board

TV viewing experience changes

A partnership between Netflix and Facebook is a win-win for the two companies. Several sources suggest there are lots of reasons for the relationship to be good news. CNet indicates that film and television studios like Warner Bros. have attempted to sidestep Netflix by approaching Facebook directly with offers to stream content. Netflix may be able to stay on top with internet streaming with a Facebook alliance.

If Netflix doesn't get access to the Facebook database, then Facebook will sure get access to Netflix's database. This will afford Facebook CEO Zuckerberg and company additional chances for revenue, as Netflix users who are not already Facebook customers might be swayed by the lure of Facebook credits. Plus, Facebook's user base showed less than normal growth in May at only 1.7 percent, so a new user infusion will turn out to be welcome.

Never discount industry savvy

Zuckerberg looks forward to a partnership with Reed Hastings, the CEO of the most successful internet streaming video business.

Reed is an entrepreneur and technologist who have led Netflix to transform the way people watch movies and TV," said Zuckerberg. "He has built a culture of continuous, rapid innovation.

Hastings, who is also on the panel of Facebook investor Microsoft, sees a fantastic deal of forward momentum.

Facebook is propelling a fundamental change in how people connect with each other and share all kinds of content," Hastings said. "I'm looking forward to working with them.

Too much internet loading

Netflix.com uses a fifth of the traffic in the United States during peak internet use periods. This is because of the loading information individuals want to view. This fact isn't lost on the telecom industry, writes the Washington Post. Hastings' idea is a massive threat to many different studios. On top of that, there are many concerns ISPs that manage bandwidth have.

There's a lot of popularity surrounding Netflix. There are over 20 million subscribers already. This poses a threat to cable and satellite providers whose outdated price models are fast becoming obsolete. By partnering with Facebook, Netflix will only increase its influence.

Winklevoss twins drop Facebook suit

The $65 million settlement with Facebook the U.S. Supreme Court would have had to look at for Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss vs. Facebook has been dropped, as reported by UPI. In 2008, the Winklevoss twins were given a settlement of cash and stock. They continued to pursue an additional $200 million from Facebook in a suit though.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the $65 million settlement would remain intact. A claim that Zuckerberg's legal team did not expose instant messages necessary in litigation is the only suit between Winklevoss twins and Facebook till open.

Figuring out the connection between all the corporations

Information from

UPI

bit.ly/jKmcDC

Washington Post on merger

wapo.st/mLDGmF

Washington Post on Netflix vs. telecoms

wapo.st/e7kUho

Puke in my mouth - and by that I don't mean that I puked in my mouth but that someone else did. I'm talking about this little gem I caught on the PR Wire:

In Investigation Discovery's new series DARK MINDS (wt), non-fiction crime author M. William Phelps and criminal profiler John Kelly revisit unsolved homicides believed to be the work of serial killers. Joining them in the hunt for answers is an unlikely and anonymous source: a convict serving multiple life sentences for a series of murders. Known only to audiences as "13," the source offers his "expert opinion" about potential motivations behind these chilling cold cases, using his own personal experience to formulate theories.  
 

I'm vomiting now.

Two people who would purport to know better, a profiler and a writer whose sister-in-law was reportedly murdered by a serial killer, are combining to work cold cases of serial murder with the help of a serial killer.

Oh? Really? Just like the movies?

Wrong.

I'm not against stories about serial killers - I've written them and explored their crimes quite a bit. In fiction they're smarter, more articulate and more clever than the real thing. And they have these over-arching "agendas" like in the movie "Se7en" when the killer has a manifesto he wants to deliver to the world and uses the murders to create notoriety. As we now understand, most actually aren’t

smart and don't have these over-arching agendas. Theodore Kazinski and the maniac in Norway aside (who isn't actually a serial killer by the FBI definition) these guys - and it's overwhelming a male archetype - want nothing more than to rape and murder their helpless victims. They choose children, lonely women, or low-risk victims like prostitutes who they murder as part of their violent fantasies of control or at the very least to avoid detection.

When there's a sexual component to the actual murder - in other words, when they orgasm during the act of torture or murder like the BTK Killer, they often take a souvenir and masturbate later using it to relieve their depraved fantasies. They may take photos, shoes, used underwear or body parts that will help them have yet another orgasm over terrorizing and perhaps mutilating a person while they were still alive.

Depraved sex is the motive nearly 100% of the time.  Does that surprise you?  Jeffrey Dahmer was trying to create a willing sex slave of his victims - he drilled into their foreheads and poured acid into the drill holes to destroy their frontal lobes; John Wayne Gacy slowly strangled his fifteen- and sixteen-year-old boy victims while anally raping them. Arthur Shawcross raped and murdered children and then masturbated over their dead bodies when he couldn’t find a fresh victim - that’s actually how he got caught. Harvey Murray Glatman had a foot fetish so he tied, raped, photographed, and then cut the feet off his terrified victims.

Do you get that Hollywood has carefully avoided mentioning most of this as part of the stories they're telling? Because it’s too disgusting. And, again, I confess I did the same. I never went deep enough into the research to understand that there was no "motive" to these men beside some sort of sick, aberrant sexual release.

But at least it was fiction.

Now Investigation Discovery (ID) Channel is taking our morbid fascination with serial killers to another level. A level that frankly makes me deeply concerned.

If you do nothing else, watch "Forbrydelsen" a Danish mini-series that (fictionally) brilliantly captures the devastation caused by a serial killer. The lackluster American version is called “The Killing” and even it drives home the devastation to families of victims.  Only one victim is studied but the impact is astoundingly detailed as the parents and their other children try to cope with the torture, rape and murder of their oldest daughter who was buried alive in water in the trunk of a car. Her body exhibits wounds that indicate that she was alive for days while the serial murderer cut, burned, and used torture implements on her.

Most of us can’t imagine how anyone can hurt someone this way - these sick men can’t imagine anything else.

And now we're going to use them to help "solve" crimes?

Here's comes the contents of my stomach again.

But why am I so opposed to this?  Let me give you one example.

Serial murderer John Wayne Gacy. You've killed for many years, had your sick, brutal way with more than thirty-three young, male victims. Become a media star once you were caught and adjudicated. Basked in the glow of the notoriety. Been interviewed by the police and FBI. If you can't kill anymore, this is the next best thing. Attention.  Control.  

But all that goes away as you begin the long process to the gas chamber and the endless appeals that are not nearly as interesting to the press so they basically go away, taking their bright lights with them. The only people really paying attention to you now are the prison guards, psychologists and twisted fans who still have a stake in you. You settle into a rather dull monotony of daily prison life while working though the judicial system.

One day, you get a letter from a 16-yr-old boy who wants to communicate with you. He’s a seemingly bruised boy - you can tell because you're good with that - you can suss out lost kids like a hooker can her next John. Now suddenly, your drab walls fall away and you become fascinated with this young boy who is doing a class project and is giving you his attention. Eventually, you establish such a rapport with him that he agrees to see you. You prepare well by bribing the guards to disappear when he arrives to visit. Once alone, you pull down his pants and...yes, this did happen. Supposedly, nothing more happened because the victim, Jason Moss, was semi-aware of Gacy’s motives, thinking he was actually manipulating him (Moss wasn't - Gacy had other plans.) But Moss was able to get away and out of the isolated cell before he was raped. Or did he?  

Moss wrote a book detailing his adventure with Gacy called "The Last Victim." He stated firmly in the book that he wasn't raped or molested by Gacy and everyone accepted that. Even the psychologist who “treated” Jason said he had only a “healthy fascination” with murders from a criminal justice standpoint and was sound mentally.  

Unfortunately, a year after publishing, when a movie based on the book was being negotiated, Moss committed suicide. Perhaps the story of whatever happened in that prison wasn't told in full or honestly. Only Jason and Gacy know and they’re both dead. Moss was indeed Gacy’s last victim - and what joy Gacy would have exhibited had he known. He was able, from beyond the grave, to kill again.

I tell this story to illustrate the point that these men live to victimize and to be recognized. The serial killer Keith Hunter Jesperson, the Happy Face Killer, wrote a self-help book called "How To Be A Serial Killer" that was quickly pulled from circulation. Undaunted, he then collaborated on a book called "I: The Creation of a Serial Killer" which was written with his full cooperation using diaries about his life as a serial killer. In fact, the author, Jack Olsen, was roundly criticized for allowing Jesperson to contribute directly to some chapters and Jesperson relished the attention and the forum he was given.

Ego, it's what drives a great many of these men, makes them feel superior to the police, to us. Allows them to rationalize why they kill in such horrendous fashion because their victims aren’t anything to them. Ego is never far from their horrendous crimes and that’s a problem when you ask one of them to help you solve other crimes and there is no actual, legitimate connection with the crimes you’re asking about. You’re just giving vent to what makes them feel good about themselves, the sickness that drives them. While the families of the victims agonize over the last minutes of their loved-ones’ lives, these men are having the time of their lives re-living those moments.

The show "Dexter" has always bothered me. My friends, knowing that I've done some study on serial murderers, are always puzzled by this. But "Dexter " does something that most works of fiction or non-fiction about serial killers don’t do - pretends, in its massive conceit, that there is actually a way to mitigate and focus the serial (sexual) compulsion to kill. Or even that that compulsion is a desirable thing in any way. And that’s why I will never watch more than the first few episodes I did.

Please understand this: there is a 100 percent recidivism rate among serial murderers. In other words, these men always continue to kill if released from prison. We know this in part because Ed Kemper, The Coed Killer, murdered his grandparents when he was fifteen. He was put into Atascadero State Prison for the Criminally Insane until he was released at the age of twenty-one to his mother's custody. Psychologists felt he was okay to release because he was a “gentle giant” in prison, followed the rules, and was seemingly cured. What no one realized or understood at the time was that Kemper, as with most serial murderers, did well in a controlled environment like prison. Once released from prison however, free to do what he wished, he murdered and dismembered at least six coeds, his mother’s friend, and his mother whose headless body he had sex with and whose larynx he tried to put down a garbage disposal.

Similarly, it’s never been proven that these men are “trainable” to focus the compulsion to kill only “bad guys.” But isn’t that an interesting fantasy? Let’s get serial killers to do the dirty work - after all, these are all people who deserve to die anyway and serial killers like to kill so... 

I had the distinct honor to interview legendary FBI profiler Robert Ressler - the man who coined the term "serial killer" - for a script about his life. I talked to him for many, many hours, sat in his home office and looked at slide after slide of his cases of broken, mutilated bodies of men, women - and to my continuing horror, children. Body parts were removed on these victims. Burns and torture marks were evident. The look of pain and horror was writ large on all their faces. Most of them died in incredible agony and emotional pain. 

Ressler had no romantic illusions about the men he tracked. My whole outlook changed after sitting with him for those five days and talking about and seeing his cases. He felt the disgust for these men and he made me feel it too. My writing changed dramatically and the script I wrote from that experience became “unfilmable” according to the well-known producer who hired me to write it. Unfilmable because I pulled no punches - I told the truth and that truth wasn’t to anyone’s liking in Hollywood. And I really do understand that because that truth is horrible, disgusting and beyond comprehension to most of us. It’s not clever, or funny even in a small way - it’s massively disturbing.  It's not this fantasy that we can somehow "control" the compulsion to kill that these men exhibit.

But at least shows like "Dexter" are fiction.  

This show on ID is not fiction (supposedly) and it is wrong on so many levels that I can't properly write this article because my brain is outpacing my fingers. My outrage is firing my neurons off into a hundred different directions. These victims deserve better than to have some writer and a so-called profiler make light of their lives and deaths by allowing a man who has no reconizable humanity to participate in "solving" crimes. Crimes that he had nothing to do with but will most certainly use to relive his own, twisted maturbatory fantasies.

I truly support anyone's freedom of speech and freedom to earn a legitimate living. I'm a writer and understand that not everything that's written conforms to mine or anyone else's standards of good taste or appropriateness.  

I’m drawing a line in the sand, similar to the one I drew with “Dexter.” This show is beyond the boundaries of common sense. If it’s true that the producers are accepting guidance from a man who is shit, scum, and any other word you might use to describe human offal then I will continue to speak out against it.  This killer has no direct connections to these cases as far as I've been able to determine and he should not be given any sort of public recognition even if he's unidentified and called only by the number "13."  Is that perhaps the number of his victims?  Lord I hope not.  It would be different if this was part of an investigation by legitimate police entities but it's not.  It's set forth as edutainment. Utilizing this criminal as part of any faux investigation condones - even tacticly - what this monster who cares nothing about his victims or the humanity which gave him birth has done. That it places any value on his contributions is an affront.

I won’t watch it. Not one frame of it.

For the sake of victims who died in the most horrible fashions imaginable and for their families who have to live that horror every single day of their lives...

 ...I will not let Investigation Discovery Channel puke in my mouth.

Yeah, we've been gone a bit  but it's only because we were planning some fantastic late summer and Fall events.  This is our first.

MeetUp/Networking Event

WHERE:  The Fabulous Ritz Restaurant
880 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660-6387
  (949) 720-1800 (map)

WHEN:  Wednesday August 17, 2011

TIME: 6:00pm start

MEET: OCSWA board member, Raymond Obstfeld.  
Raymond is a New York Time Best Selling novelist, and screenwriter.  His last book, a collaboration with Kareem Abdul Jabbar was just made into the film "On The Shoulders of Giants."   

Raymond's prolific career (60+ books and hundreds of articles and dozens of screenplays) makes him a fascinating and eloquent speaker.  Plus, he's a great teacher with encyclopedic knowledge of film and prose writing.

MEET:  Jule Selbo.
As a producer/writer Jule has worked for Disney, Dreamworks and many other studios.  Her prolific career so far includes nineteen movies as a writer and a dozen TV episodes as a producer. 

She is a fantastic writer and teacher who teaches screenwriting courses at UCLA Extension Writers' Program and is Chair of the Radio-TV-Film Department at CalState Fullerton, and Head of the MFA in Screenwriting Program at CSF.  
 

COST:  
$10.00 Advanced Registration (you can change quantities at PayPal)  
$12.00 at the door (credit cards accepted at the door - NO CHECKS please)

NOTE:  Students with recent I.D.'s can get in for $5.00 at the door. 

PAID ADMISSION includes one chance to WIN Final Draft 8.0 and other prizes.

INCLUDES:  Admission includes the Ritz's incredible famous finger food, and a chance to win prizes, including 1-2 copies of Final Draft. 
Extra tickets for the drawing will be available during the event for a cost of $5.00.  
Drinks are not included.

EVENT SCHEDULE:

6:00-6:30 - Check-in, Networking

6:30 - 6:45 - Introductions/org business

7:00 - 8:30 - Speakers Obstfeld and Selbo

8:30-10:00  - Networking

Characters Welcome - that's USA Network's catch-phrase and a good one it is too since they work hard to create memorable characters if not totally believable storylines.  "Suits" is the latest in that pantheon of memorable characters and unbelievable stories.

When I grow up - or die and am recycled I'd want to come back as Harvey Specter a character so cool (as played by Gabriel Macht) that he can turn down beautiful women and they actually lie to their husbands and confess to sleeping with him even if they didn't.  

Spector is the city's best closer - defined in this case as someone who can take a client and either charm or push their hand to sign the contract or agreement his firm is trying to win.  Now, this in and of itself would be enough to get most of us through the episodes because Macht's Spector is a charming and whip-smart S.O.B. and he is convincingly written and played.  But the show's creator (Aaron Korsh) has built-in another unique character in the form of Mike Ross (Patrick Adams) who has an eidetic memory - in other words, once he reads something he never forgets it.  Up to this point he's used his powers for evil taking LSATs for slacker law students. Now he has to put his potential to work for goodness and this cutthroat law firm.  Forget why he hasn't become a real attorney to this point  - it doesn't wash and may not matter to most so just shake your head, shrug your shoulders, and move on, citizen

See, there's also the fact that Ross is not actually a Harvard grad which is requisite to his hiring and he's never actually practiced any law although he claims to have passed the bar although it's not entirely clear under what circumstances.  But like all the people in this show, he's smart and capable and Spector likes him and damnit, that's close enough for hand grenades and horseshoes and for hiring an associate to a high profile law firm and by which your entire career hangs.  Uh...what?

Yeah, it's a problem in logic and one severe enough that the entire show could fail because of it - unless they fix it, of course, by having Ross found out and legitimized.  Problem is, there's no way a man purported to be like Spector would spend even five seconds thinking about doing what he did and the potential repercussions of lying to his boss and pretending Ross is something he isn't.  He's too deliberately abrasive to not understand that his enemies, always looking for an opportunity to bring him down, wouldn't eat this particular morsel with a nice Chianti and fava beans.  Plus, the self-serving Spector has absolutely no reason to do this - it's not like he's under some sort of gun - he's a superstar attorney and his life is good - very good.  

Naw.  It just doesn't fly.  But that's the magic of USA - story logic isn't as necessary as characters acting badly, actiony, or funnily.

With a lot of USA Network fare, I watch the shows and if I like them initially, I imagine that I'll be in love with them forever.  But without fail "Burn Notice" "Monk" (when it was on) "In Plain Sight" and others have gone into unfortunate directions that caused me to stop watching after a season or two.

"Suits" has definite potential - it's kinda like a modern-day "Mad Men" and Macht plays Spector with a fierceness and confidence that is eminently compelling.  Given the dynamics, I can see the cases being interesting enough and the inter-personal relationships working for a long time.  The firm is cool, the writing is tight, and the endings semi-clever.  Plus there's good eye candy in the form of pretty people living in a world that we don't filled with expensive food, clothing and homes.

So it's fun.

But there is this huge, pink elephant in the room in the form of the reasons Spector did what he did and the fact that it was so easy to fake everyone out that even if they clear the air, the smell might still linger in the drapes for years afterward.

Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane, Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson, and Rick Hoffman as Louis Litt round out the cast.

"Suits" is on USA Network on Thursdays at 10:00pm

USA Network is a true success story using a formula that seems to serve them well - unique characters in semi-comedic situations with some drama bits tossed in to keep things interesting - a true TV salad.

“Necessary Roughness” uses this same formula to good effect. Like predecessors “Burn Notice,” “Monk,” “Psyche,” and “In Plain Sight,” etc. NR works on many levels as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

The funny and sexy Callie Thorne plays Danielle (Dani) Santino who is a psychotherapist undergoing a life-changing moment when she discovers that her husband of fiftteen years (Craig Bierko) is cheating on her - again (“Six women in thirteen years isn’t a mistake, it’s a life style”.) She throws him out (the requisite tossing-clothing-out-of-the-bedroom- window scene - that’s how you know she’s serious,) begins a painful divorce and expands her practice through a series of (wink-wink) events that find her in bed with a trainer for a professional football team.

The New York “Hawks” have a bad-boy, star, wide receiver who is dropping footballs. Their “million-dollar asset” needs a head doctor - actually another one - to figure him out. The first one, a Haw-vaad trained shrink left in miserable defeat, the bad-boy being too much for him to handle. But Dani can do it - she’s spunky, you know - and she’s sexy (”I’m a licensed psychotherapist, not a hooker.) so maybe Terrence King (Mehcad Brooks) known as T. K. (yeah, Terrell Owens comes first to mind) will resonate with her and allow her to pry the top off his brain to probe his dark secrets. See, she’s good - really good. After only one hypnotherapy session, the hunky trainer (Marc Blucas) who she bedded a few weeks after her separation from her husband, has not smoked a cigarette in seven days. Proof enough. Bring Mrs. MILF to the sports complex and hand her the keys to the kingdom.

Don’t dig too deeply into the whys and wherefors of the premise or the storyline - none of the USA fair has a particular debt to veracity and it’s really not necessary to the enjoyment of this - or any of their series offerings. We know there are sports psychologists who  work with these elite athletes - and, in fact, this show is inspired by the real Donna Dannenfelser, a Long Island housewife-turned-therapist. She is credited with helping the New York Jets improve their game. Wonder if she had anything to do with coach Rex Ryan’s admitting his foot fetish last season? 

Callie Thorne is terrific (even if her character is a little scattered) and brings a lot of the crazy she exhibited on “Rescue Me” to this series. She has the requisite weight to carry the show and she’s helped along with some interesting but not terribly unique co-cast members including her mother (Concetta Tomei) and kids (son, Patrick Johnson and daughter, Hannah Marks.) Son is doing okay but daughter is rebellious and self-destructive, mom is a nut, blah, blah, blah. 

The psychotherapy parts feel too touchy-feely to me and not particular real. But, again, how true is “Burn Notice” or “Monk” and I watched them for a few seasons until the weight of all the nonsense created too heavy of a reason not to.

As a huge fan of "Friday Night Lights" I was expecting more actual football but it was only given a hand wave in the pilot which disappointed me.  But I do like Ms Thorne a great deal - she was some of the best parts of the sometimes insanely good “Rescue Me” and will watch it hoping it grows in all the directions it’s lacking at this point.    

“Necessary Roughness” plays on USA Networks on Wednesdays at 10:00pm. 

Maybe it's just me getting older and growing more curmudgeonly.  But as I watched the pilot ep for TNT's new series  "Falling Skies" I kept hearing and seeing the echoes of "V" (both versions) "War of the Worlds" (all versions) "Battlefield L.A."  "Battlestar Galactica" "Walking Dead" and a dozen other humans-on-the-run , post-apocalyptic invasion movies and teleplays.

Not that this was necessarily a bad thing.  But it's also not a good thing.

Aliens invade!  No news at 11:00 because we don't have anything resembling infrastructure anymore.  Groups of humans (300 to each group apparently) have to survive against long odds.  The aliens who have suddenly invaded and killed most of the armies of the world want us for: 1) food, 2) slaves, 3) sex/play toys 4) all of the above 5) none of the above.  Anything you pick is correct because after the first two hours of the show you don't know and speculation isn't given a lot of play here.  

Again, not necessarily a bad thing seeing that this will be a major reveal at some point.

I can categorize the pilot episode of "Falling Skies" in three basic ways:  there are some bad parts (hundreds of humans making camp fires in the open and the aliens just can't find anyone 2) okay parts (the interactions between the humans) and great parts (bad ass alien video game scenes!)

Noah Wylie is the lead actor in the series and the former "ER" doc has his work cut out for him.  He's well-liked by everyone except his commanding officer (Will Patton) whose only job seems to be to growl at Wylie and create problems for him.

As a former history teacher, Wylie's perspective is that the humans can cause so many problems that the aliens will just leave them alone - like other  insurgencies from the past.  Yeah, right.  They're gonna travel ten-thousand light years, bring all sorts of fighters and war craft to this planet, blow 90% of it up, and then suddenly give up and go home like we did in Vietnam or the Russians did in Afghanistan .  Big difference - those places couldn't be nuked from orbit to win the war, Braniac.  This is insanely weak rationale given the death of millions of humans at the hands of the invading aliens but perhaps it's the only way Wylie's character can justify getting up in the morning.  I just wish someone would have said something to him and had him respond that way: "Damnit, Jim, it's the only way I can get up in the morning since the aliens destroyed all the Starbucks!" (Problem with that is you just suspect that there's, in fact, a Starbucks somewhere on the mothership serving the equivalent of a skinny latte.)

Wylie has three sons, two of which are with him and one who has been kidnapped and fitted with a device that looks like an external, biological spine that enslaves humans to the will of the alien masters.  Of course, it doesn't seem to cause much pain despite that it's drilling into massive nerve clusters in your back - no, it just make you walk zombie-like and, of course, kills you if you take it off.  Otherwise, it's cool - just a benign little symbiote attached to your spinal column.

Of course, part of what Wylie's character wants to accomplish is to free his middle son from these aliens - a herculean task to be sure given that he's got little else than a AR-15 and a disapproving scowl. 

The aliens themselves - Skitters and Mechs - are both frightening and familiar.  The mechs (bi-pedal robots?  alien armor?  Roombas on 'roids?) are actually scarier to me than the skitters which are insectoid in nature and have six legs and a head/mouth I've seen in six dozen other alien shows - can't anyone come up with anything different than the farging "Predator" model? 

One scene where one of Wylie's sons hides from the Mechs, these earth pounding walking death dealers, actually had me paranoid and a bit on edge.  And there are some other scenes like that which will make you shudder. Unfortunately they are few and far between, and too many more scenes that will make you shudder for different and not so good reasons.  

Colin Cunningham, who plays the leader of a rogue gang that relishes killing aliens, is intriguing in his role even though they give him stupid lines like "you don't go for a head shot - you shoot the legs out first, then you go for a head shot."  Well, duh, Mr. Obvious - you go for anything that you can and if a creature has six big-ass legs then those would be targets, yes.  His character has potential even given some of the scene chewing moments he has to get through to establish him and his story movement going forward ("I think I'll take a break.  Being the leader of a post-apocalyptic gang has been exhausting.")

There's great eye candy here for both sides of the aisle.  Moon Bloodgood plays a  pediatrician turned battlefield doc and seems like the love interest for Wylie although there was no scene that gave you anything to really base that on.  Plenty of young blond freedom fighters (Jessy Schram, Sarah Carter, Seychelle Gabriel )and hunky doods (Drew Roy, Mpho Koaho)  -  although I was beginning to wonder why the hair dye wasn't fading on most of them given that they've been on the run for months and I doubt there's a salon open anywhere.

Now, that last sentence is just me being  facetious and snarky but it goes to what I really don't like about "Falling Skies" in general.  Given its great provenance (writer/producer Robert Rodat, Steven Spielberg exec producer) I just expected more.

This show is too pendantic.  Too monotonous in parts.  Too predictable.  It's just not believable in any way and it's filled with too many recycled scifi concepts and looks - like the ED209-looking Mechs but don't get me started on that stuff.

I know, as a scifi writer, that you're faced with a huge task when creating a world that no one's seen before. And post-apocalyptic anything is a challenge to do right.  But "Falling Skies" just won't go to places dirtier and grittier which it really needs to do to distinguish itself.

300 people on the move is a lot of folks to feed, water and everything else (where do all those people poop and what do they wipe with?)  Fights, deaths, rapes, murders - all that stuff has got to happen in a group like this living on the edge of their humanity - and yet everyone is so reasonable and basically well-behaved.  They even have a school for the youngsters that is farcically and  "reasonably" taught - why in the world would they be teaching kids biology when they need fighters?  I'd have shown the rug rats killing things - that's their job now - survival, not higher ed (or at the very least they should be dissecting the alien Skitters, right?  How cool would that be? Alien Autopsy, 'yo.)  

Imagine how many kids would have been horribly killed by these aliens; the first thing I'm gonna do is arm those little people so they can at least potentially survive an attack.  But instead, there's this "reasonable" setup of 100 fighters guarding 200 civilians and never the twain shall cross or meet.

 In a word, bullshit.

Coming into this story post-invasion, with all these systems set up already does  the series a disservice.  I'd have started from the day of the invasion and worked forward - or at least flashed back a bit to their recent, previous lives.  Maybe that's coming but it seems if they had intedended that they'd have done it already.

I just couldn't buy into the whole scenario.  I couldn't "suspend disbelief" as it's called for long enough to really enjoy this show.  Maybe I'll get beyond that in the future - I did stick this on a Season Pass to see if it improves - but given the overall approach to this world, I honestly don't think it will.  

If you like scifi and have nothing else to watch then "Falling Skies" is a good distraction.  But if it doesn't get more compelling quickly by adding some grittier and more intense moments by the survivors, I'm not sure this series will survive the initial 10-ep "invasion" to our home media centers.

"Falling Skies" plays on Sundays on TNT. 

Oh, and not for nothing, TNT, but  "limited commerical interruption" must mean different things to you than it does to everyone else because I had to fast forward through about sixty freaking commercials.

Summer in the city. Being on vacation in the nation's capital is a nice change from the Orange County scene. Of course the small streets and bad parking of D.C. reminds me of Venice or Santa Monica by the beach, but with a more Euro flair. Focusing on summer movies there are not that many I wanted to see this summer and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS was not exactly on that list. Like most movie buffs I'm partial to pre- 1980's Woody Allen but the heat and free time got the best of me so I took the plunge.

Paris has a special place for most literary minds. It has always had a certain mystique of romantic alley ways, hard baguettes with  tasty cheap wine and cheese. Many of America's most creative minds flocked to this city in the early turn of the century so you can't really question their choice... since there must have been a reason. Of course it was the birthplce of new ideas, where everything goes and social norms were constantly contested in favor of pushing the creative envelope. Woody Allen knows this and uses this same situation to create an interesting story with a small twist. I'm sure that more times than not, many screenwriters have played with the idea of a story that brings back a important historical figure to modern day life. What would they say, do or even create in this new crazy modern times would be an excelent plot engine. But to have a modern, simple man enter the past and be mesmerized by it is another. With Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen does so in a very simple way that actually makes it look very easy when the best of us know how hard it is to pull such a story off.

So we take GIL, the main character, (much like every other character in his movies, he's a Woody light) He's a successful screenwriter. He makes a good living but has always wanted to move to Paris and give the old college try at writing the great American novel. He lives in a world of admiration of Scott Fitzgerlad, Hemmingway and others of the time who used the Parisien muses to drink, fight and make love through the many days of writers block. Gil is the stereo typical modern california guy, not to intelectually informed but enought to have studios buy his work, not strong enough in character to really take his dreams to the next level and very out of sync with the weaker sex as his fiancee has more control of his manhood than him of his computer keyboard. Top that with the stereo typical medling inlaws (rich and ignorant like all Americans that travel abroad in Allen movies), mix and serve.

But Gil is missing something. Ines his fiancee is the typical SoCal gal, Fred Segal and Coffee Bean are her homing beacons of interest and culture, and Gil is trying to set himself free from this - but doesn't know it yet. Also he's written his first book but hasn't showed it to anyone. Again another sign he has no faith in himself. He likes walking in the rain, she doesn't. He wants to move to Paris she wishes to put roots in Malibu. Anyway you get the picture.

One night, frustrated by his wife's strange devotion to an old flame, Gil decides to take a walk and of course gets lost, just as the clock strikes midnight. Then suddenly up pulls a 1920's Peugeot and he's invited by a gentleman and his party to join them. He goes and ends up in an underground Jazz bar. His new friends, to Gils's amazement are SCOTT FITZGERALD and his wife. He can't believe it but goes along with it. They start to bar hop and meet another friends of Fitzgerald... a burly unshaven man in a thick mustache who introduces himslef as HEMINGWAY, who right away asks Gil if he's afraid of dying. Gil is awestruck but tries to soak everything in. That same night he meets COLE PORTER singing for the crowd and hits a bodega where JOSEPHINE BAKER is dancing for a very small group of friends. The night ends with Hemmingway taking Gil to GERTRUDE STEIN'S house to ask if she'll read Gil's book.  It would be full night for anyone... for a Gil it's  shocker!

He returns and lays next to his fiancee, awestruck by the expirience but can't let go of the dream. Here is were you just loose total sense and either you follow or tune out. Anyone would think he's being pulled a prank by Ryan Seacrest, but Gil is so charmingly naive that one follows his folly.So the next night he urges Ines togo with him. They wait and wait, she gets bored and leaves... he stays... but right after the clock strikes midnight... again the old Peugeot comes rolling along... this time another fellow parisian pops out.. who? T.S. ELLIOT.. and another crazy night ensues.

The plot then goes as predicted. Gil's inlaws suspect he's up to no good since he's never with them at night and refuses to go out on trips to stay writing. His fiancee gets mad as Gil gets more involved in the Parisien nightlife, that she doesn't believe is happening. He falls for a girl who's PABLO PICASSO'S mistress and begins his journy of self descovery. During the movie we see from TOULOUSE LAUTREC, to MATISSE, GAUGIN and other geniuses of days gone by. I have to say my favorite performance was Adrien Brody's interpretation of SALVADOR DALI, it had me in stitches. Again Woody Allen has a very great wit for dialogue and it's interesting how he can mix serious intelectual banter with off the wall SoCal frankness that creates the best of both worlds and a classic "fish out of the water" situation. When Gertrude Stein asks Gil, who's just arrived, if he thinks the price she paid (500 francs) for one of Matisses's painting is fair, he goes : "500 francs I think it's fair, in fact I'll take six or seven". Also the dialogue works very well coming out of Owen Wilson's mouth.

In the end Gil comes to the grand conclusion that the best of times is not the past nor the future but the present, that everyone mistaknely thinks is a bore, but in reality they are the times of our lives since we are living and expiriencing things that they happen.

The conclusion of the movie is a bit rushed and convinient but the journey getting there was so entertaining that one doesn't care. Gil finally finds his way, his writting style and his city of choice with a gal, who actually enjoys walking in the rain.

Scott Fitzgerald, Hemmingway and Gertrude Stein would probably aprove.