Linger

Originally Posted Saturday, May18, 2013

C.C. recommended a television series to me, said to watch it before it is gone.  "Rectify" on the Sundance Channel.  I stayed home and watched two and a half episodes last night.  I've been feeling punky, without vitality, so this was a welcomed suggestion. The show is certainly disturbing.  What bothers me most, though, is the high-key look of the show.  It doesn't have the visual textures and depth I've become so dependent on in series like "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Borgias" and "Deadwood" and others.  The production values just are not as high.  It is a shame.  I could like it better if they were. The writing is good and the acting awkward.  That is not a dig.  The women of the series--all of them--steal the show, and everyone seems to have nailed his or her character.  But the editing cheats them.  It is too traditionally cut "on the beat" so to speak, audio with video, tone to tone.  I want more lingering in some places with warm, close audio.  The production values are just not there.  Pity.

But the show got into my head last night just because I was punky.  The main character, released after almost twenty years in prison, is locked inside his own head where he has had to live a sort of zen existence to survive the horrors of captivity.  He comes off sometimes as an idiot and sometimes as a savant, and both seem somehow to be profound.  Lying there in the half light of the den last night, I wanted to eschew the world in an elegantly meaningful way, too.  I felt I had engaged it enough for awhile, too much, lately.  I felt the need to be quiet and contemplative again. 

But I don't want to be like him. 

And truly, what I liked about the show most was the sexual attractiveness of the women.  The main character's sister is a charmer, smart, giving, and a little needy but ballsy, too.  She reminded me right away of the woman in the photograph.  Perhaps that is why I watched so much of it last night.  And there is a petite blonde redneck Christian who is going to do great and terrible things, I know.  And the mother has a depth to her that is surely going to be surprising. 

There is nothing sexy about any of the men but one, the defense attorney.  But perhaps he will be enough to garner a female audience, too. 

The sun is out.  I have not gone to the gym for a week and have no desire to go.  Perhaps I will start a yoga class tonight.  I am going to take a walk and lie in the sun for awhile.  The repairman is coming to work on the house today and it makes me feel terrible always.  I am not a good plantation owner, even when I'm paying the workers twice what they should be getting.  If I hang around, I'll be out helping him work.  Having him do it all just makes me feel like a sissy.