Noteworthy Items of Entertainment

A few observations about what I've experienced recently on Television, DVD, and the Internet:

1) I saw a commercial during Scrubs this evening for Sour Skittles. It is an immediate contender, if not the frontrunner, for the most bizarre TV ad I've ever seen. The commercial opens on an old man sitting in a barn. He's relaxing on a chair in a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt that is completely unbuttoned and hanging open. The shirt needs to be wide open to allow proper access for six milking tubes attached to his abdomen.

Before you have time to vocalize, "What the hell?!" in response to this initial image, a younger man comes around the corner holding a milk bottle. This second man complains to his elder that the milk he's putting out is sour and the Sour Skittles this aged lactater is so fond of are likely to blame. The old man acknowledges the probable truth of what his interlocutor has proposed but insists that he's "willing to take that risk" rather than give up this delicious, new innovation in candy. Keep in mind, there is a milk machine extracting fluid from the seated fella the entire time he's on screen.

I like bizarre humor but this is flat out disgusting. The nearest thing I've seen like it on television before was an episode of "American Dad" where the alien (a male alien, mind you) that lives in the house begins lactating and the product of his bodily activities ends up being used as a mayo-substitute in potato salad. Not only do I find the most recent offering more disturbing because it involves live actors but I am definitely not encouraged to sample Skittles latest offering on account of this ad.

2) Yesterday afternoon I watched a movie I've owned for several years but had forgetten how excellent it was. David Fincher is likely best know for directing Fight Club but his best film is arguably Seven.

Watching Seven was an excellent way to spend the latter half of my Saturday afternoon. At the time of its release, Seven fit into the "serial killer" movie niche that was as popular ten years ago as "torture" movies are today. But Seven, unlike contemporaneous films such as Copycat or Fallen, is much more about characters than killings and Fincher is more interested in the persons tracking the killer than delving into the psychology of a murderer. In this respect it is more like Silence of the Lambs, the film that kicked off 90's moviegoers' fixation on the serial killer, than it is like most its cinematic kin.

Most movies dealing with serial killers are centrally about the conditions which create and sustain such evildoers. And there is also a sense that the lives of the protagonists or the world itself will be made better by removing the killer's threat from society. But Seven answers this stereotypical attitude with an affirmation of the apparent pointlessness of life's pains and trials, as well as with a secular articulation of the fundamental depravity of human beings.

The one character in the film that embodies the hopeful outlook of your typical hollywood hero is Det. David Mills (played by Brad Pitt). He's the brash yet good-hearted new guy on the force looking to make a name for himself while making the world a safer place to life all in one potent effort. His counterpoint is Det. William Somerset (played by a Morgan Freeman who's brought his A-game to the table). Somerset is so disenfranchised with what he perceives as the ultimate futility of his job that he is only one week from retirment and relocation when we first meet him. Yet despite his negative outlook on both his occupation and human existence, Somerset operates with nobility and integrity. He's no more an anti-hero than he is optimistic crusader.

So much of the film is taken up with chronicalling the seven days of interaction between Mills and Somerset that the character of the killer and his handiwork are chiefly a foil for bringing the two detectives together in pursuit of a common goal. In fact, the killer doesn't even have a true name (going by "John Doe" by personal preference), and he stays off screen until late in the third act. His arrival brings a stiff test of Mills' simplistic worldiew and of Somerset's more nihilistic convictions. The greatest suspense the film produces concerns whether or not either detective is capable of passing his respective test. The film's chaotic ending leaves us to sort out who "won" and who stayed most true what is "good" and "right." As my quotation marks should indicate, all these familiar terms are relativized before the picture concludes.

In a film where the audience sees little violence occur and not much of its physical effects, it is all the more impressive that Seven creates such a disturbing atmosphere. For me, the moral of the story is that the world John Doe inhabits is present independent of his own criminal actions; furthermore, it is our world too. Nevertheless, the world we live in is the only world we've got and it's this world we must simultaneously protect and challenge.

If you've never seen this film, I recommend you do so ASAP. If you haven't seen in recently, you owe it to yourself to watch it again.



3) Check out the MySpace profile for which I've provided a link below. Over the past several days, I kept seeing this dude's picture and username listed in the "Cool New People" section right below the login box. It's hard not to notice someone named Lucifer Lewis. His profile cracked me up for reasons that I hope are evident to you once you view it for yourself. The things that amused me became even more funny once I noticed his stated purpose for joining MySpace was "dating."

www.myspace.com/bewarethedarkarts