#jonathan trooper

Four siblings gather to mourn their father for a seven day period. What ensues is dysfunction, old flames, new truths, childhood patterns and continued humour at the expense of others’ misery. Their mother, played by Jane Fonda is the cherry on this multi-layered and flavoured cake, who binds them together with an invisible glue and very visible ‘floatation devices’.

The four ‘poles apart’ siblings include Tina Fey (strong protective sister), Jason Bateman (the focal point of the unsolicited dramatic comedy), Adam Driver (youngest, most reckless and surprising sparks of wisdom),  Corey Stall (boring older brother) and their significant others make a bizarre family.

The strength of the film lies in its unpredictability. Our tendency as human beings to ‘judge’ is also challenged, the need to ‘plan’ everything till its ‘perfect’ is questioned and several ideas of ‘love’ are presented. Made for an adult audience, you come away with some nice one-liners and many laughs, all of which are situational.

Based on a book of the same name by Jonathan Trooper, the writing must be great to have the scenes play out as they do.

Banshee

Cinemax. This show airs on Cinemax. Here's the thing about Cinemax. It's mostly a porn channel. In fact, it has been for 20 years or so until recently. So going into it, I knew there was going to be something I'm not a big fan of. Ridiculously over the top sex scenes. I wasn't wrong.

So when I first tried watching it and five minutes into the first episode, the main character was already having sex with some random bartender, I rolled my eyes and stopped watching. It just wasn't something I felt like dealing with. Especially at the time.

But then I tried again recently, almost a year after it originally aired. I was bored and I love watching tv shows. I like to think of myself as a critic sometimes. I prefer to delve deep into shows, if they have the depth. If the tv show doesn't have the depth I'm looking for, I normally just forget about it. Like I planned on doing with Banshee. Once again though, I was bored and I had only watched five minutes of it. So I said "fuck it" and gave it another shot.

Yea... it's pretty great. How the hell did that happen? I guess that's what I get for judging a book(or show) by its cover. First off, these characters are REALLY well written. Like, it was unbelievable at first. Then I saw who created this show. Jonathan Trooper. I've read three or four of his novels. Sure, they weren't action novels, but he clearly knows how to pace and give depth to characters. This guy gave an Amish Gangster a sense of believability. He made the main character more than he was supposed to be. The writing for the main female character is probably the best in the entire show. All of them topped off by wonderful performances.

Both the writing and performances took these characters to unpredictable paths. And they should be absolutely commended it for it. There was a moment in the season finale when Ana was asked what the plan was when assaulting a base to save the main character and her only response was "Save Hood. Shoot everyone else."

Normally, a line like that would be delivered in a deliberately bad ass way and then bad ass music would kick in. But surprisingly, that wasn't the case. There was no music. The actress delivered it in a very tired way and it made me realize these characters can be broken down mentally. They're not invincible. She had a lot of weight on her shoulders and because of that, a line that should have been cliche turned into a wonderful representation of where her character was at. Tired, but still driven to save a man she owes the past 15 years of her life too. Sure, it's just one line, but it's stuck with me since.

Of course, this tv show is still over the top but it's pretty fantastic anyway. The fight scenes are literally some of the best to ever hit television. That's no joke. The fight scene in episode 3 was so adrenaline pumping, I was breathing hard at the end of it. That's not metaphorical. It actually happened. There's certain things about television that don't affect me. I rarely cry at emotional moments. I rarely feel tensed during fight scenes. I rarely feel overwhelmed. Of course, for everyone, there's always an exception to the rule. I never cried during this show(that particular accomplishment goes to Rectify) but damn did Banshee make me feel like I just sprinted for a mile straight.

This show isn't realistic in any sense and it is over the top, but it can be surprisingly grounded. And it's universe feels like its own.

I forgot to tell you guys, I read the novel "This is were I leave you" because Tina will be appearing in the movie and it has a lot of sex, drugs, alcohol, family problems, etc.

Tina's character, Wendy, has three kids; two boys of  2 and 5 years old, and a 7 month old baby girl. Her husband, Barry, is an asshole; he barely helps her with the kids and he spends most of his time talking on his phone.

Wendy is actually in love with another guy, Horry, he was his boyfriend when they were younger but he suffered an accident that caused him a brain injury and he sometimes is okay but other days he is not, one day unconsciously he hit Wendy. One of the seven days of the shiva, the main character, Judd, is sitting in the roof very early in the morning and he sees Wendy doing the walk of shame when she comes out of Horry's house. 

On their parents house, there is a pool and Wendy falls and is saved by Horry.

Also Wendy smokes a cigarette once in the book, she goes up to the roof very early in the morning to found her brother Judd and she takes her box of cigarettes out from the chimney.

She curses a lot, truth to be told Wendy is a bit of a bitch, but her character is very funny.