2 Suckas and a Rula
Feliz ano nuevo! The Counterpoise staff was given a vacation for the x-mas weekend (with the exception of The Mirt, our embedded reporter who continues to wade for gators in the swamps of the Sunshine State) and thus, no Suckas or Rulas surfaced. However, we realized that we also failed to nominate a rep of Suck from the previous week (although we are particularly proud of the research behind Alex Rocco's piece from that period). So, to set shit straight and up-to-date:
Counterpoise continues to exchange snappy letters with HBO over a proposed deal for free cable access, intended for strictly journalistic purposes. Until agreement is reached, we may continue to miss out on their consistently excellent original series programming. Thus, we only recently discovered The Wire, a dramatic series characterized by engaging realism, idiosyncratic detail and unorthodox plot development. The Wire is the creation of David Simon. Simon began investigating the notoriously violent drug game in Western Baltimore in the mid-1980's for the Baltimore Sun, wrote two books and two television series concerning or based upon this work, and proceeded to collect various awards and accolades.
With The Wire, which recently concluded its third season, Simon is executive producer, series creator, and writer. Viewing the pilot episode with retrospective DVD commentary elucidates Simon's unique approach to the series. He explains that he consciously broke from dramatic television's typical focus upon episodic story arcs and conceived of the first season as a cohesive story spanning several hours; this enabled him to layer the screenplay with "intimacies and ordinary moments of life" that enrich the viewing experience and allow precision injections of his nuanced street knowledge of the Western District's 5-0's and hustlers. Simon describes sitting for hours with veteran narc cops and recording eccentric stories on cocktail napkins.
Simon's commentary does not conceal his tangible disgust with cop show cliches, and he proudly announces that he will not use musical cues to alert the audience to dramatic tensions and plot thickenings, nor glorify the exploits of cops-n'-robbers beyond the assessments he culled from his objective journalism.
For his unabashedly eluding the pitfalls of trite TV in a well-mined genre and providing compelling scripted realism in the age of "reality" shows, David Simon is a Rula in the game.
The original concept of a Sucka of the Week presupposed a human being, or at least a social institution of human origin. This week, we first attempted to blame SUV drivers, malfeasant bureaucrats, proponents of global inequality, producers of "Who's Your Daddy?" or other transcendental miscreants, but were left with no one to point the finger at but a devastating megathrust earthquake occurring at 7:58 AM local time on December 26, 2004 centered at 3.316°N, 95.854° E and caused by the release of tectonic stresses that develop as the India plate subducts beneath the overriding Burma plate. Suck the pipe, tectonic bitches! I think the India plate is the real cockblower; subducting muthafucka! But that greedy pig-ass Burma plate just had to keep overriding didn't it?
Helping the victims is relatively easy and tax-deductible.
While we're on the boob-tube tip, how about those producers of "Who's your Daddy?", another predictably tasteless, window-dressing-for-advertising trash show from Citizen Murdoch. Suckas, all of you.
Counterpoise continues to exchange snappy letters with HBO over a proposed deal for free cable access, intended for strictly journalistic purposes. Until agreement is reached, we may continue to miss out on their consistently excellent original series programming. Thus, we only recently discovered The Wire, a dramatic series characterized by engaging realism, idiosyncratic detail and unorthodox plot development. The Wire is the creation of David Simon. Simon began investigating the notoriously violent drug game in Western Baltimore in the mid-1980's for the Baltimore Sun, wrote two books and two television series concerning or based upon this work, and proceeded to collect various awards and accolades.
With The Wire, which recently concluded its third season, Simon is executive producer, series creator, and writer. Viewing the pilot episode with retrospective DVD commentary elucidates Simon's unique approach to the series. He explains that he consciously broke from dramatic television's typical focus upon episodic story arcs and conceived of the first season as a cohesive story spanning several hours; this enabled him to layer the screenplay with "intimacies and ordinary moments of life" that enrich the viewing experience and allow precision injections of his nuanced street knowledge of the Western District's 5-0's and hustlers. Simon describes sitting for hours with veteran narc cops and recording eccentric stories on cocktail napkins.
Simon's commentary does not conceal his tangible disgust with cop show cliches, and he proudly announces that he will not use musical cues to alert the audience to dramatic tensions and plot thickenings, nor glorify the exploits of cops-n'-robbers beyond the assessments he culled from his objective journalism.
For his unabashedly eluding the pitfalls of trite TV in a well-mined genre and providing compelling scripted realism in the age of "reality" shows, David Simon is a Rula in the game.
The original concept of a Sucka of the Week presupposed a human being, or at least a social institution of human origin. This week, we first attempted to blame SUV drivers, malfeasant bureaucrats, proponents of global inequality, producers of "Who's Your Daddy?" or other transcendental miscreants, but were left with no one to point the finger at but a devastating megathrust earthquake occurring at 7:58 AM local time on December 26, 2004 centered at 3.316°N, 95.854° E and caused by the release of tectonic stresses that develop as the India plate subducts beneath the overriding Burma plate. Suck the pipe, tectonic bitches! I think the India plate is the real cockblower; subducting muthafucka! But that greedy pig-ass Burma plate just had to keep overriding didn't it?
Helping the victims is relatively easy and tax-deductible.
While we're on the boob-tube tip, how about those producers of "Who's your Daddy?", another predictably tasteless, window-dressing-for-advertising trash show from Citizen Murdoch. Suckas, all of you.
posted by Benjamin Justus at 2:45 PM
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