THE DIGITAL COUCH

After-Lost thoughts.

So after all my grumbling about the Lost finale, I re-watched it with ABC’s “annotations.” Those are the informative subtitles that explain what the hell is going on. It had been sitting on my DVR and I thought I'd give it one more whirl. Not only did I like the finale much better the second time around, but like many series endings, it played much better without the sky-high expectations that had dogged it since day one. In fact, I actually had a new appreciation of it and found myself both moved and thankful it wasn't just an answer to every question the series ever posed.

Rather than a mythology defining episode that tried to address every question, the finale frankly left many, if not most burning questions unanswered. Instead the show went for the emotional jugular. In retrospect, I don’t know what I expected, but re-watching, while it certainly contained an endless amount of logic and storytelling flaws, it still worked profoundly well.

In the end, there might have been one too many intrigues for the show to answer anyway. Ultimately, I think people, myself included, wanted to see our core characters happy and resolved. And in that sense, this was satisfying.

But, since this is most likely the last time I’ll ever talk about LOST on this blog, here were my quibbles with the finale:

1.) Why did Michael seem to be the only one not happy with the news that he was dead? (Everybody else seemed to know it and be thrilled about it the moment they were told.)

2.) How in God’s name would Sayid end up for eternity with Shannon when Nadia was his clear love? (This seemed to be just a way to cram in an elder cast member.)

3.) The agonizing final shot over the credits seemed to go a long way in suggesting that the whole thing never happened and that the purgatory was not just for a time, but existed the entire time. Then came news that ABC execs just chose that shot for the Lost to News transition? I’m sorry, I actually don’t believe the very final shot of the show was left to chance. There is something more to this story that we’ll probably never find out. That said, if this were true, why re-run the shot during the repeat after they had declared…ah forget it.

Jimmy Kimmel did an excellent job hosting the post-Lost finale show. He did a great question and answer section with Mathew Fox, and the parodies were right on the money all month long leading to the finale. Particularly excellent: the commercial parody of Connect Four with the Man in Black and Jacob, and the final scene that parodied The Sopranos.

LOST: Finale re-graded: B +

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to LOST: A

Jimmy Kimmel Live has been on fire this season. From the Twitter Rap bit to the brilliantly inspired Mac-Book episode, to the recent Expendables spoof, Kimmel is the best reason to stay up late these days.
Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)
Grade: A

Endings and Network Television
That particular two-week period of television had an interesting impact on the future of network television.

In the same week, you had the Lost ending, the 24 ending and the final episode of American Idol to feature Simon Cowell as a judge. At the same time, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, True Blood and The Closer are all example of off-network programming that has become the talk of the town. Even after all the spectacular web failures, programming online will persist and expand beyond viral videos. Old fucks like me don’t like watching a movie on the computer, but my 11 year old niece doesn’t do it any other way.

What does this all mean for the big 4 networks? Frankly, I think there will always be a place for network television and event programming that cable simply can’t do and the internet doesn’t have the setup for. I think it’s entirely possible that 2 of the 4 major networks might someday fold into one, and if that happens you can say you read it here first. But it would make me sad as I like the idea of network television and grew up on it. When I was a kid, ABC, CBS, NBC and even FOX - those names meant something to me and each network had a very specific identity.

The big task now is to have a non-reality scripted programming hit. Modern Family is a great show, but it’s still no Seinfeld. And the great hour dramas seem to keep coming from cable and pay-tv (The Sopranos, Damages, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, The Wire, Deadwood, Oz.) Lost and 24 were unique in that way, too.

I guess we’ll see what happens. I just can’t believe there are no great serialized dramas on network television anymore. With all the re-boots in the movies, why not re-start Wiseguy, Hill Street Blues or even Twin Peaks?

I guess at this point those shows would be on HBO.

These are interesting times.

George A. Romero's Survival Of The Dead (In theaters and PS2)
Wow. The distribution says it all I guess. Who would've thought that perhaps the very final chapter of Romero's zombie saga would premiere on PS2? Maybe that's a sign of the times, but readers of this blog know just how much of a zombie fan, particularly a George A. Romero Zombie fan I am, so writing this review is nothing short of heartbreaking. But it must be said. This man has lost his mojo. If you’re at all into these movies, you know that the new zombie trilogy is like the new Star Wars for zombieheads. Who did it worse? That’s a question best left for others, but I will say this. Land Of The Dead was a misguided if at least worthy film. It was more DAY than DAWN, but it had some kind of plot and point of view. In truth, it was pretty much some great nuggets and moments in a sea of shit, but someone out there did a fan-edit that nearly saved the entire film. I prefer the fan-edited version that does away with all the groaning humor and erases money as a motivating factor. Still, at its core its still the same shitty Land Of The Dead. Then came Diary Of The Dead. This seemed promising. It was the first time in 30 years Romero was doing an indie zombie film and one had high hopes for this, in the way of his original masterpiece Night Of The Living Dead.

After a particularly rousing opening, the kids with the camera POV didn’t work very well due to some bad acting, some really bad dialogue and Romero’s deep misunderstanding of “those crazy kids on the net!” Lastly, (although I hear he’s making yet another) we have “Survival Of The Dead.” Which, for the first time is almost a sequel in that characters who made a brief appearance in DIARY are given the leads here.

What to say about this movie? I don't know. I think if you took the central story out, a take on the Hatfields and the McCoy's (I swear I'm not making this up) this could've been cool. Reviewing this almost makes no sense. It is what it is. And that isn't much. That said, I will probably watch any Romero zombie film that he shoots till the day I die. Maybe he'll rediscover himself at some point but....I don't know. I don't even know what to make of this film, much less the ridiculously pretentious final shot.

Still, Romero is the master, and just as Bob Dylan puts out some really shit CDs in between the good ones, I'm still hoping for Romero to knock one of these out of the park.

The Seth McFarlane 1 1/2 Animated Sunday Show (American Dad, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show)(Fox)
What better way to enjoy a Sunday evening with The Simpsons, followed by 90 minutes of Seth McFarlane's hijacking of Sunday night. American Dad, Family Guy and The Cleveland Show are all such reliable laugh getters that I'm starting to wish Seth could take over as showrunner on The Simpsons and maybe pump some new life into that veteran show. While The Simpsons can still come up with a great episode here and there, these days it plays more like an appetizer to the real Sunday night main course.

Losing It with Jillian (NBC)
Jillian, the lithe, angry trainer from The Biggest Loser, gets her own hour here in which she travels to new cities to scream at and belittle mostly minorities about their eating habits. After everybody cries, she comes back in 5 weeks to find the people who were yelled out lost 25 pounds because NBC told them to. Despite all this, I love it. Fat people losing weight never gets old.
Grade: B

88 Minutes (HBO)
Truly ludicrous. I could go on about the insane plot twists, the first-rate cast reduced to acting this out, Pacino's hammy performance, the insanity of the last ten minutes, the fact that this is called 88 minutes but lasts almost 2 hours, but then, you haven't quite lived till you've seen this film.
Grade: It's so bad it's good.

Face/Off (DVD)
A highly over-looked and slightly over-cooked piece of cinema from the late 90s when Travolta was still super-interesting after his Pulp Fiction turn. Nicholas Cage is terrific largely playing Travolta, and while the plot might be ludicrous, it somehow works as long as you don't ask too many questions. Overlong by about 20 minutes, this John Woo directed wannabe epic has a mighty score, some dynamite scenes, echoes of every film he's ever done, and stands as the sole project he's directed in America that comes close to the kind of films he made in Hong Kong.
Grade: B +

Big Brother (CBS – summer 2010)
A lot of fun this summer. I loved the mean redhead, can't get enough of the intelligence-challenged Enzo, and think they got it right this year casting-wise. Who will win? Tough to say since they got rid of Rachel who was my first bet, but Brendon seems to have been coated in Teflon. We'll see, but for the moment I'll go with Brendon if he can turn things around. Some might say he's playing like a chump, others might recognize he's playing a brilliant game.
Grade: B

Drawn Together Movie:The Movie! (DVD)
After 3 increasingly funny and outrageously profane seasons, Comedy Central mysteriously and quietly cancelled this animated half hour. I loved this show, and I liked the wrap-up movie that we never thought was coming. While not as fun as the series, this is a nice way to get some closure, and the DVD is chock full of extras that answer almost every question about the movie, the future, and the actors playing the roles. (Is that innocent Cree Summers from "A Different World" voicing the dirtiest character on TV, Foxxxy Brown?)

And the extras, including the 3D controversy, is plenty reason to check out this disc and say goodbye forever to these strange, disgusting and mostly hilarious characters
Series Grade: A
Finale Grade: B +

NICK SANTORA interview: part 2!
We talk about The Sopranos "Watching Too Much Television."

When we first started our interview with Nick, we covered how he went from being a Brooklyn lawyer to someone trying to break into TV writing. This time around, I get a very somber Nick as his great pilot, Breakout Kings, was not picked up for pilot season for an order. (Things have since changed, but at the time of this article, things for Breakout Kings seemed very dim.)

We pick up the story and dive right into one of this blog's favorite subjects: The Sopranos. Nick penned the very popular 4th season episode "Watching too much television" which had Adrianna planning to marry Chris so she could have an excuse not to testify against him, Tony & Co. planning a major HUD related scam to cheat the lower-income neighborhood out of housing money, but this episode is easily best known for the beat-down that occurred when Tony finally extrapolated from the news that his politico buddy, Zelman, was living with his ex-girlfriend, Irena. The scene that ended that episode is still one of the most talked about moments from the series and I got a chance to discuss the episode in detail with Nick, who was nice enough to give me the time even though he had many things going on. As usual, our conversation took place while Nick was driving around to various meetings and commitments.

Digital Couch: Welcome back, Nick. My readers enjoyed your last interview very much and I thought it was a nice buildup to talk about what went into you getting to write on one of this blog's all time favorite shows, and one of the best episodes to boot. Thanks for submitting to this again.

Nick Santora: No problem. My pleasure. If your readers want some Sopranos talk, I'm happy to provide it.

DC: Great. So, I know you're a busy man. Let's dive right in. Last we left off, you get a call and it's your agent telling you that you're meeting with David Chase, who had read your screenplay Slip & Fall, which later became your best-selling novel. What happens next?

Nick: I had to take this meeting with David Chase. I was practicing law in Brooklyn at the time. Around the corner from Silvercup Studios in Queens, where they filmed the show, was a parking lot and I remember sitting in that parking lot and being so nervous to get out of the car. Eventually I get out and start walking around to get to Chase’s office and I remember having this exact specific thought “Whatever happens in the next hour will dictate the rest of my life.”

I knew writing a Sopranos would change my life as I knew it. I also knew there were a million ways to not get the job, so I decided going in to 100 percent be myself and not pretend to be some slick writer because at the time I wasn’t really a writer; I was a lawyer with an office over a pizza place in Brooklyn. And I knew that Chase probably liked me as a writer because he enjoyed the screenplay's subject of a man who was naïve, who was essentially me.

DC: What was that day like, knowing you had a meeting with David Chase?

Nick: A stressful element was that the day I was supposed to meet with David I was supposed to be in court. I was told by one of the partners that I couldn’t get out of court. And I just said “I’m going.” He said “No, you’re going to court.” I stood my ground, and said “I quit.” So I left work that day thinking I no longer had a legal career. I called my wife and said “I no longer have a job anymore.” After the meeting with David, I called my office the next day and they gruffly said “come back to work.”

DC: Good thing. But let's get back to the meeting with David Chase.

Nick: The offices for The Sopranos were so much cooler and hipper than the pizza joint. I was led into a large writer’s room at a huge table where I met David Chase and Terry Winter, who later became a friend. Winter really is the nicest guy ever. Mitch Burgess and Robin Greene were in the room. And David Chase was in the room.

I sat across from David. There's this huge table but David sat right next to me. We started talking and it was crazy because it was the height of Sopranos popularity and he was telling me how much he loved my script. He asked me what I felt about The Sopranos. I told him the truth, that is was the best show on TV. He said “I hope you don’t like the characters because these guys are sociopaths. You have to write them as bad guys and killers, don’t get tricked into romanticizing them.” I told him “I won’t if I get the job.”

He smiles and said “in your screenplay there’s a character whose smile is real but then turns on the hero on a dime, and that's the world of the Sopranos.” We talked for a while. He was very concerned as to whether I would have the time to write the script with my legal practice. I said I will have more than enough time because I had a couple of weeks off for Christmas, but the truth was I just didn’t know if I had even had a job left for me. But I was scared to tell him about that because I didn’t want him to think I was a flake who quits a job over a meeting.

DC: So then what happens?

Nick: He thanks me for my time. They all said goodbye. During the meeting Terry didn’t say too much but we talked later and I found out that what we had in common is that he, in a past life, was a personal injury defense attorney and we knew a lot of the same people and I admired Terry because the only thing more horrible and boring than being a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer was working for the insurance companies like he did and he found a way out too.

I left that meeting and went back home to my apt. in New York that I shared with my wife, but I wasn’t confident about the job because I couldn’t see Chase hiring an attorney who hadn't written television before. I started getting depressed because I thought I should’ve done something different in the meeting. I started getting into a dark, depressed place that night. My wife and I took a walk that night in the freezing cold. When we got back my agents called. I said “what’s up guys?” They said “Congrats. You got the job!"

I lost it. I pumped my fist in the air, my dog went nuts, my wife and I got in the car and drove to my parents house and went in and told them I didn’t get the job to goof with them, then I told them the good news. Called a few of my friends – everyone was so happy for me. That was one of the best feelings about the whole experience. True happiness for me from people who cared about me.

A few days later I was supposed to go through the beat sheet with the staff about what the episode would be. At this point, I’m back at work at my law firm like George Costanza – all was forgotten and forgiven. Then I was at court with all these motions and later that afternoon I was supposed to leave for David Chase. The judge showed up late and now it was time to go to Silvercup. So I pulled the judge’s court clerk aside and said “look man, you gotta help me and call my case.’ He said “I can’t play favorites.” I told him I had a big thing – he didn’t care. I begged him. He couldn’t do anything for me. I said “I’ll be completely honest with you: I have a meeting with the creator of the Sopranos." He says “are you lying? That's my favorite show." Next thing I know, they call my case, I rush from Brooklyn to Queens and next thing you know – I'm at Silvercup Studios.

Now I’m with the rest of the team. That was very interesting to me because it was the first time I had actually seen a beat sheet and I was surprised how lean it was. It was just bullet points like “Tony and the gang welcome Paulie back from prison,” “guys sit in the steam room and talk about the Hud scam,” etc. Then we talked in depth about the scenes and where the characters were headed and they gave me those episodes that hadn't aired yet. It was very top secret – signed disclosure forms. I just couldn’t wait to hand those scripts back to Silvercup so they knew I didn’t lose them.

Then I went off to write, and that weekend I started writing the script in my in-laws basement in NJ – my wife wanted to spend the weekend with her parents and my father in law had a nice quiet basement office.

DC: At this point, and for readers of this blog, it’s time for Sopranos geek-out time:
Okay, you said you had a basic beat sheet. One of the most memorable things about the episode is the way Tony beat Zelman with that belt. Where did that idea come from?

Nick: The idea of Tony going after Zelman at the end of the episode was in the beat sheet, and later in the day the idea was floated in the room but 10 years ago, not sure who came up with the belt idea specifically. But the idea of Tony going after Zelman was not my idea – all the credit goes to the Sopranos team. But when I wrote the script, I wanted Zelman to be naked, and the actor refused to be naked.

Writing it was exhilarating but halfway though the first scene when I typed in the name TONY and hit ENTER, I realized I was about to start putting words in Tony’s mouth, and I remember thinking “holy shit, I’m a guy with no produced writing credits in his in-laws basement and I’m about to start writing dialog for one of the most famous characters in television history." Then I took a deep breath, exhaled and started pounding the keys.

DC: Tony always walked the line between being likable and monstrous. But we'd never seen him be quite that petty and horrible before (that I could think of.) How did you feel about him beating Zelman?

Nick: My feeling is that it was in character with what Tony would do…when I was in my meeting with Chase, and he told me Tony would go after Zelman, I remember I said out loud, to myself: “this is going to be cool.” Chase mimicked me and laughed. He was getting a kick out if the excited kid lawyer.

DC: Was it the song "oh, girl" that set Tony off?

Nick: I don’t think it was only the song. One way or another, Tony would’ve found another reason to beat the shit out of the guy. But the song was the trigger.

DC: In Sopranos mythology, everyone always talks about the fact that when Zelman first talked about Irena, we saw some shots of him putting on his belt. The same belt he'd later beat Zelman with over this very issue. Was that in the script?

Nick: It wasn't. John Patterson directed the episode, but he’s unfortunately since passed and I'm not sure about the evolution of that sequence.

DC: I always thought after the beating that Irena wanted to leave with Tony. It looked like she wasn't sure what to do at the end.

Nick: That was performance and the director. I just had Tony leave them.

DC: How did you feel about the doomed romance between Furio and Carmella?

Nick: That was fun because it was a slow build but it had a great payoff in the season finale when it all came out.

DC: Anything big in the script that didn't get filmed?

Nick: The original C story was AJ having a crush on a girl at school and he gets a big sty in his eye and he gets teased for it and there was this whole parallel story about how Tony deals with Irena not being his – but Chase decided not to do that AJ storyline. I was already working on The Guardian when he made this decision so they came up with a new C story that dealt with Adrianna and that lead to one of the biggest honors of my career, sharing screen credit with Terry Winter.

DC: Do you remember some of your lines that made you happy to watch play out?

Nick: Oh, it was so long ago. I liked the line about Paulie getting laid in prison all the time. I also remember writing “Buy land, ‘cause God ain’t makin’ any more of it,” and Tony’s toast to the federal government, amongst others.

DC: What was one of the most surprising things about the experience for you?

Nick: The thing that really came across to me is how great the show's writers and producers are because every day they had created these underlying subliminal themes in the episode: no matter how hard you try 2you can’t get out of this world once you’ve made that choice. I thought that was all over my episode. That idea, that theme. You see with Irena, with Zelman and especially with Adrianna. But even Tony can’t get out of this world if you look at what he eventually did…..you can’t get away from the nature of that business.

DC: Was there anything very differently shot from your original intention?

Nick: No. The director did such a great job, I was just really honored. And writing that type of material was great. That HUD thing, the circle of corruption has so many victims. People don’t even realize that they’re victims of organized crime. People don't think that every slice of pizza you buy is jacked up 20 percent because the owner has to give something for protection. Details like that are what made The Sopranos such a great show. Because we liked these guys, but they were absolutely corrupt.

DC: So you finish the script, hand it in - then what?

Nick: After writing it and being done, right before Christmas 2001, that’s when I decided to give full time writing a chance. I got my bonus check from my law firm that Christmas and as soon as it cleared, I quit. It was so liberating. Then I went out to L.A. to look for writing work while my wife stayed in New York to finish up her job.

I was out here 16 days and the day my wife flew out to L.A. to spend a few days with me, I got the call that I'd been hired by the CBS show The Guardian, so me and my wife got to celebrate that together.

DC: So how long after you handed in your Sopranos script did it air?

Nick: Nine months later or so; I was working on The Guardian when it aired. We were in L.A. My wife and I invited our new friends in LA to our apartment for a huge Italian dinner for our Sopranos episode. We invited 12 people to sit in the tiny apartment to watch it. My wife cooked all day; pasta and meatballs, red wine. We were planning on watching the West Coast feed with our friends, but we had DIRECT TV and it just came on via the East Coast feed as we were getting ready for the party. So we just said "oh, crap, we can watch this earlier than everyone else," so my wife and I sat on the couch and we watched the episode by ourselves before everyone came over.

It was weird. The moment the credit came up and I saw my name on the screen, I started crying. So many people thought it was insane to leave a steady job and even though it turned out well, so many people told me I was crazy, stupid. People told me it was impossible to break into this business when you didn’t know anybody. I just felt this complete and utter release of pressure – after that aired I felt like I had proven to myself that I could do it. Just an incredibly emotional release. My wife was asking me what was wrong – I said “I’m just so damn happy.” It was such a cathartic moment – I’m so thankful to David Chase and Terry Winter, who was so great during the whole episode – just a prince. During the writing he had given me his home number, cell, etc. He said, “call if you have questions. I want this to be a good experience for you.”

The Guardian was a great situation, full 22 episodes were ordered but we wound up doing 23 and as a staff writer I wrote a whole bunch of scripts scripts and they wound up promoting me in a year to co-producer.

After The Sopranos aired, a lot of people who hadn’t been in touch with me for a long time saw my credit and reached out and expressed congratulations. I got a huge boost of confidence. I’ll always be able to say that I had a tiny tiny part/membership card to an exclusive club for a brief moment of time and that’s something I’ll always be proud of.

DC: What was James Gandolfini like?

Nick: He’s larger than life, he’s a physical presence and I’m not a small guy. He just kind of grumbled past and Terry says “Hey Jim, this is Nick Santora. He was the writer on the episode.” He goes “how you doing Nicky?” That was it. But I got to write for one of the great American actors of our generation.

DC: When's the last time you saw the episode?

Nick: Maybe nine years? I rarely get to go back and see my old work.

DC: Thanks again for the time. I thought it was one of the best episodes of the series and it was great to hear about it. Thanks again.

Next up: Prison Break and beyond!

THE DIGITAL COUCH

2011/01/04

Happy New Year!

2010/12/26

Recent Movies Xmas 2010

2010/09/14

THE 2010 VMA awards (snore)

2010/09/08

George Romero Would Be Proud

2010/08/16

After-Lost Thoughts and Nick Santora, part 2!

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