Monday, April 28, 2014

Billy Bob Goes to Westeros and gets religion

My primary viewing this week was the new Fargo TV series, along with Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica. I'm surprised that the most God-talk does not come from the series set in the Midwest, or in a mythical land of lords and ladies but from outer space.
Can I just say that God looks good in a red dress?
BG was pitched to me as a being pretty religious, but who knew? I have a funny feeling that the believers in the one true God are not going to fare well in this series, as the ones who believe in the one true God who offers forgiveness in exchange for a personal relationship with him are "toasters," in the vocabulary of the show. The Cylons are robots that humans created and have rebelled, and although they originally looked like the Cybermen from Dr. Who (see below comparison), they have no figured out how to look like us, and in fact have flesh and blood. And they believe in one God, while the majority of the humans believe in the Lords of Kobol, which are a lot like Greek and Roman gods. I look forward to learning more about other's religions, even if they are by blind believers in a God we share. Could be awkward.
Then there's GoT (see, I'm getting the hang of being cool), which I'm learning more about. I did make one good call from last week's column, and that was that Lady Stark is not to be toyed with. She knows how to marshal sympathy against her enemies, and quick. (The last I've seen her is surrounding the bad writer from Elf with loyal swords. Very nice.)
As much as we are loving Fargo, after two shows, we are suspending our watch because of too many ding dang commercials on Comcast. It took 1:15 to watch a 40 minute show. Good job, Comcast - you've lost two viewers. Sometimes on Xfinity, they'll only show one or maybe two commercials, like on Parks and Rec or The Middle. But man oh man, the "content" feels more like a break from the commercials, instead of the other way around.
Ironically, the most interesting thing I watched about religion this week was in The Americans, which is frankly one of the better shows on television. Thank you F/X (which also gives us the amazing Walton Goggin's brand of southern creepy religion in Justified). The short story on The Americans is that Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, travel agent couple living next door to any one of us, with two kids are deeply embedded KGB agents during the Reagan era. Had this show been on during the 80s, everyone would have been paranoid that their next door neighbors were KGB agents. (As one who lived during that time, I believe that was the thought that Reagan was cultivating). Anyway, just like in The Good Wife, the teen age daughter has found religion, and committed 600 of her hard-earned dollars to go on a mission trip. Remember, her parents are "godless communists" and so the thought that they are actually bringing their own two kids (who don't know their parents' real lives) up as followers of the opiate of the masses sends dad and mom into freak out mode, but dad more than mom. Dad rips pages out of the Bible and screams "So your Jesus tells you to lie to your parents?" He later goes to her pastor and threatens him with physical harm if he ever goes near their daughter again.
I think I'll show that scene at the next DCE meeting when one of my fellow youth directors complains about "alligator parents."
I'm finishing up Hitchcock's 39 Steps and will soon be done with Dovzhenko's Earth (1930), which has this great opening scene...
Old man reposing.
Old friend says, "You dyin' Simon?"
Old man says, "That I am, Peter."
Old friend looks around, sees peaches growing, young men smiling, owheat fields blowing, children playing. Says, "Yep. Well go ahead."

File:Cyberman 2013.jpg

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