I also continue to wonder if Gilligan made Flynn and Skyler intentionally unsympathetic characters (the former like a pampered 9-year old, the latter annoying an entire nation). Especially as I like so many of the other characters for their nuance – Saul, Mike, Lydia, Skinny Pete, Todd, Brock, Jane…

Speaking of Jane, the first scene that made me rail against Gilligan’s script was when Walt watches her overdose and die a hideous death. Its when he truly becomes Heisenberg.

No point in going on as BB has been talked about ad nauseam, but I would like to say Dave Porter’s score deserves equal attention (that link is to music, btw). Its brilliant, lending atmosphere and pathos with as much menace as Mr. White’s stares, and as this Rolling Stone article pointed out a year ago, some scenes were quite the challenge.

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Anyway, I wrote all that as prelude to saying how I’m now watching http://www.hbo.com/enlightened, another HBO show, featuring Laura Dern, who co-produces, and I’m faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar more engaged! Its really odd, the tone of it, as Dern’s character who is seemingly manic/bipolar works for a company whose sinister practices only she seems to care/know about. Where her mental illness ends and her authentic desire to change the world/herself begins is constantly confused – classical unreliable narrator – such that she acts crazy but much of what she says isn’t. This tension is addled, humorously, by her wholehearted embrace, California-style, of spiritual gurus and treatment center cults. She’s fascinating, and her relationships – with her taciturn mother, her self-medicating ex-husband, her co-workers – are much richer than Dunham’s are, though both shows share a well-honed awareness for the awkward disconnects that comprise so much human contact. If in “Girls”, this self-consciousness seems an end unto itself, in “Enlightenment” its represents the spiritual aims of its protagonist. Her belief that change will come if you will it, though thwarted again and again by all that can and does go wrong, remains steadfast, and soon you begin to stop waiting for outcomes that prove her right (sane) or wrong (crazy).

Interestingly enough, both represent the real-life experiences of their writers. In the case of “Enlightenment”, Mike White, who also co-stars – brilliantly as Judd – and co-produces with Dern, wrote screenplays, hated Hollywood politics, and suffered his own nervous breakdown (like Dern’s character at the outset). This article in New Republic interestingly conveys some of what I just wrote as the reason for the show’s low-ratings:

“The reason “ENLIGHTENED’ has gotten such consistently, unjustly low ratings since it premiered in 2011 seems to be that viewers don’t know quite what to make of it. The show can be very funny, and was included in the comedy category at last year’s Golden Globes—but it is not a comedy. The tone is something all its own: It teeters so precariously between earnestness and self-awareness that viewers are left half repulsed by its worldview and half converted to it.”

I say decide for yourself, I recommend it, especially for those who like to challenged/thrown off-kilter.

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She had this to say on the JT Leroy hoax (about the real author, Laura Albert, who pretended she was a young gay trailer trash “chicken”/truck stop prostitute, writing about his exploits, even getting someone to portray “him” at media events – the best “fuck you” the publishing world has gotten in ages): “I feel empathy for her motives to create a persona,” Argento says. “I think that I do the same with the characters in my movies. We all want to be something that we think is more lovable than what we are. We want people to think we are this other person, to be loved at the end of the day.” And then there’s this:

“I always saw myself as really ugly. My father even told me I was ugly because I would shave my head and look like a boy. Then when I was 21 I was offered this part in a movie where I was supposed to be really sexy. It was strange for me to have to research femininity, but I found these tricks for getting attention that I didn’t know before. It was a kind of revenge I guess, on all the kids who said I was ugly at school.”

Who knew? The wonderful filmmaker Bruce LaBruce does a great interview with her where she delivers a few gems. The first in response to the Italian media calling her an “abortion” or so she says (her penchant for hyerbole being trademark): “I’m proud to be different, to be the monster.”

On the making of Scarlet Diva, the semi-autobiographical film she directed, and Dad and Uncle produced:”I had hoped to do a scene with bestiality, but they wouldn’t allow me to do it.” This film btw has several trailers for different markets, which is the norm now, I gather (I don’t go to movie theaters like I used to, who does?) But here are two, the first I’d see, the second, doubtful, proving how much they matter. This one is “fanmade”, which is probably a whole new subgenre in trailers…I should’ve written my book on movie trailers when I had the chance – another proposal in the dustbin. But when someone’s doing a dissertation on nearly the same thing, sometimes you’ve got to yield.

OK speaking of the film industry, my favorite Asia dig for the night, especially because I’ve generally found this to be true (SORRY JAMES FRANCO FANS!): “I don’t usually care for actors because they’re seldom creative.”

And before you get all freaked out, I’m not promoting smoking during pregnancy though I’ve known plenty of women who snuck a few, and everyone survived. And if I was going to break my cardinal rule of not posting pics of people as part of this vignettes series, I think this cheeky goodness by Leeta Harding (2001) is worth it.

(Don’t forget to check out Bruce LaBruce’s films!):

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