My Favorite Things 2014: Movies and TV

Television

True Detective: If someone had told me a year ago that "American Horror Story For Murder Mysteries" would be one of the most awesome things to happen to television in 2014, I would have laughed heartily at them. And I would have been dead wrong. Nic Pizzolato took everything that's enjoyable about the experience of a hard boiled mystery novel and packaged it into a well-produced, streamlined series. I mean, these were some of the most beautifully shot parts of Louisiana I've ever seen. And it took full advantage of Matthew McConaughey's new season in the limelight. Rustin Cohle is one of the most compelling (at times, confounding) characters I've seen on a show like this in years. The only sin committed was that we didn't get to spend more time with these backwater super sleuths.

The Flash: I have to say this one took just about everyone by surprise. CW finally has the expanded superhero franchise its wanted so badly. The best thing about the Scarlet Speedster's series is that it never attempts to capitalize off of Arrow's success with creating a dark, gritty, Nolan-esque universe for it's lead to play in. In fact, it does the opposite. It's genuinely hopeful and intentionally trite, making Grant Gustin's Scarlet Speedster a Superman surrogate of sorts. And Jesse L. Martin playing Joe West does this show so many favors on so many levels.

Movies-

Captain America: The Winter Soldier- TWS is easily the best representation of where Marvel is in terms of production quality and representation of source material on the screen. This is what it looks like when you manage to tell a decent story and still deliver fast paced action without really compromising either element. Who would have thought the same guy who killed it as Johnny Storm (the only real standout aspect of the Fantastic Four movies) would go on to become and, basically, OWN the role of Captain America?

A Few Things About Interstellar.....

So, I watched Interstellar yesterday (loved it, by the way) and I noticed a few things:

-Hans Zimmer is scoring movies as if he's trying to dethrone John Williams.

-When your movie is so star powered, Matt Damon is the unbilled star, that's a REALLY star powered movie.

-Matthew McConaughey's character, Joseph Cooper, for him to be the "practical one," was like the happy go lucky version of Rustin Cohle from True Detective.

-As right brained as Christopher Nolan's work tends to be....he's kind of a big softie. For a space movie, the teary eyed close-up scenes seemed to steal the show. The scene where Matthew McConaughey is holding his weeping, angry daughter seems to be the moment that serves as the driving force for everything they both do from that point onward. The movie spends every bit as much time on philosophy and feelings as it does on quantum physics. Anne Hathaway has a whole monologue where she ponders whether or not love can transcend time and space (which is the sort of thing, I'll admit, I'm a sucker for in movies). Having said that....

-If Neil Degrasse Tyson can learn to let go, we can all learn to let go. We are a cynical generation that can't enjoy a movie if it has the smallest of plotholes that don't really matter to the story as a whole. If America's Science Czar can note the scientific inconsistencies and still enjoy a movie that, in its own way, embraces love as a science unto itself, so can we. Granted, let's not get crazy. When you have too many plotholes that leave you asking wildly unnecessary questions, you end up with Transformers 2 and 3. Still, learning to let go is an integral part of the moviegoing experience.