Good TV

After watching this season's final episode of "The Wire" (and like a hammer when I realized that the friend of former junkie Bubbles was former junkie Steve Earle) I realized AGAIN what a miracle it was that this intricate, intense drama representing people of all sizes, classes & colors even made it to the airwaves. Each season opens up a WHOLE NEW WORLD.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT?!?!

Another show I've been watching this year that does a similar amazing thing is "City of Men." Like this season's story behind The Wire, the plot of each episode is so universal in terms of kids growing up. There are lots of television shows about kids growing up. However plunk the same old story into the settings of the Baltimore housing projects or the favalas of Brazil and it's a lesson in similarities and huge contrasts. These programs are a peephole into learning about a drastically different environment -- and for me, they bridge a huge gap in understanding. For when will I ever spend a good thirty minutes in the slums of Brazil, because they will never let me pass up the hill to eavesdrop on their conversations. Plus, I don't understand Portuguese, although I could listen to it all day and not care -- it's so lovely and soft sounding, all those zaraleenas and woochola sounding words.

The other odd thing -- both these shows follow the lives of boys, young boys -- an age group and a gender that I would easily cross the street, run out of the room, not make eye contact with, plug my ears and sing to myself to avoid. Teenage boys, they are annoying, no? Is there anything more annoying than teenage boys? Just another reason I find myself mystified that I'm completely drawn to their stories. Like a good book, here I am, wondering what the hell is going to happen to Randy. The characters are so good I can't let them go.

Plus, those kids -- where did they find those kid actors? Oh yeah, some of them are Shakespearean trained, and some of them lived in the neighborhood. Again, I'll just say it's a miracle. That these kids could represent these kids in these stories about their own world and be so damn' good at it tosses me smack into the middle of the story. There is so much crap on television that when something good makes it on, I'm shocked. I want to thank everyone involved in getting these shows on the airwaves -- the WRITERS, the directors, the casting directors, the heads of HBO and whoever is their liaison to Time/Warner that fights for letting them do what they want to do, the BBC and the Sundance channel and whatever funding in Brazil that got into the hands of the insanely talented director Fernando Meirelles (and co-director Katia Lund) and gave jobs to actors who IMPROVISE THEIR SCENES and translate their environment for TIVO owning losers like us who just want to sit down, turn on their television and be magically transported.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT?!?!?!?!

Lest you think I'm a TV snob who only watches critically acclaimed programming about social issues, I just finished watching "10 Best Truck Stops of the World" on the Travel Channel. The truck stop in Racine, Wisconsin made #3 because it has a chiropractor.