There’s a scene in the first episode of American Horror Story: Coven that as a newcomer to this show helps inform why there is much fun to be had and this involves Jessica Lange dancing around her penthouse doing crazy amounts of coke. There are other aspects that are so disturbing that it feels like an attempt to shock just to be super provocative. From what I have read about the show in the past this is pretty much standard American Horror Story behavior and I definitely enjoyed enough of it to continue watching.
I do find witch stories to be rather intriguing (I blame The Craft for this) and the amazing ladies this cast comprises of is a big draw. I definitely need more Frances Conroy looking like a witchy mash-up of Vivienne Westwood/Grace Coddington.
The song that Jessica Lange’s Fiona is having her hotel room meltdown to is the 1968 track “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterfly. It’s psychedelic and chaotic, running for just over 17 minutes which means you can also have your very own dance party (minus the coke and smashing mirrors).
Last week I wrote about the importance of the final song in a series final with Breaking Badand Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” and this week’s choice comes from a season, not series finale and so the tone is very different. Yo La Tengo’s “Nowhere Near” plays in a long sequence that brings season 1 of The Bridge to a close and there is a hopeful and sad quality to the song. Spoilers ahead.
The song begins as Sonya puts her sister’s tape into her new car (I guess she changed cars as she complained her new one didn’t have a tape deck) and as this song is from 1993 it makes sense that it is on this mixtape. It’s a beautiful and haunting track mirroring the tone of the pensive faces that we see in this montage; Daniel Frye at his desk, Charlotte smoking on her porch and Sonya driving. It’s also incredibly heartbreaking as Adriana’s mother waits for her youngest daughter to get off the bus and she doesn’t turn up; vanishing like many other Juárez girls. This allows for a momentary truce between Adriana and her mother as personal differences are put aside in a story that is part of the longer narrative that connects both sides of the bridge. Steven Linder is a part of this and in this sequence he visits Eva; the woman he helped save by not giving up on finding her. What of Marco? The music fades as he enters his destination and makes a deal with the devil (ok Fausto) so he can get his revenge on David Tate.
“Breathe Me” by Sia, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” and “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead” by Delta Spirit are three songs that accompanied the final moments of season finales that I hold in high regard.* The last episode can be controversial and divisive (see Lost and The Sopranos), all round hated (the Dexter swansong) or generally satisfying (Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock). As Julie Hammerle points out in her excellent Breaking Bad review the last outing is rarely the best episode of the show and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan even stated that the penultimate penultimate episode “Ozymandias” is the best hour of this show.
For me Breaking Bad falls into the generally satisfying category and yes the story was wrapped up neatly, but it felt fitting to what we have been watching; a show that has been chaotic and reckless, but has always had a strong structure much like the crystal meth that Walt has been making.
*Those shows are Six Feet Under, The Sopranos and Friday Night Lights
The closing song choice as Walt lays down to die surrounded by meth equipment similar to what allowed to be a king is Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” a song which starts with the line “I guess I got what I deserved.” While this notion might be in contention as Walt got to die pretty much on his terms and as he told Hank he would die before he was convicted – from a gunshot and not the cancer as he predicted. The song title is also a not so subtle nod to the color of the meth that made Walt so famous and as he lays dying in a lab it is pretty fitting.
What a final song choice needs as we witness the last few minutes of a character, that we have not only watched but discussed for hours is some sort of finality and while something like The Sopranos refused to give that with its closing scene (a scene which I love) the end of Breaking Bad is not ambiguous in any way. Walt’s story is over and while characters like Jesse will be haunted by what has happened in the unseen hours of the show (fanfic time!) our protagonists tale is over. This neatness is not the ending that all will find satisfying but on this occasion I’m more than happy with the end result.
New Girl is back this week and to celebrate its return we’re looking back to the episode that cemented those Nick and Jess chemistry tingles. While we wait to find out what happened after Cece called off her wedding and Jess and Nick drove off into the sunset, let’s enjoy another New Girl wedding moment from early in the season 1. Like most sitcoms New Girl took a few weeks to figure out its strengths and weaknesses; this episode is when it became clear that Jake Johnson and Zooey Deschanel have great chemistry (the drunken photo booth scene is one of the most gifed Nick and Jess moments prior to The Kiss).
The final scene in “Wedding” is hilarious and touching; New Girl’s strength is that it can flip between moments that are ridiculous and ones that resonate emotionally. Jess has been banned from doing the chicken dance – she’s been told to “suppress the Jess” – and so by Nick leading this moment and the other guys joining in, it shows that they are beginning to accept her weirdness and are becoming friends. Having them all dance in this manner to Phil Collins “Groovy Kind of Love” gives it a level of absurdity that New Girl has come to embrace and excel at . Also Nick needs to dress like that more often.
New Girl returns for season 3 tomorrow (Tuesday 17) on Fox at 9/8c. Watch a sneak peek here.
What a start to the week! My internet access has been down this morning, which is more frustrating than anything else – I did get some offline work done and without distractions I caught up on some writing, but there’s only so much you can do when you have to post things online and have emails to send. I’ve also just finished watching last night’s Breaking Bad and considering the prolonged heightened tension and huge cliffhanger I thought a soothing song would be best. So far we have only featured songs that have appeared on TV shows or in movies and while today’s choice has been on a soundtrack, this isn’t why it has the honor of being today’s “Music Monday.”
The track is “Sleep the Clock Around” by Belle & Sebastian and most recently appeared on a season 1 episode of TheKilling (not so uplifting). It’s my favorite track from the album “Boy with the Arab Strap,” an album that I have listened to a lot from when it was released in 1998 as it’s played a big part in my essay writing album selection. It also feels like the perfect song as the summer comes to an end. Who knew that bagpipes could be this relaxing?
Yesterday I went to see The Way, Way Back (it’s an excellent coming of age story and I never thought I could hate Steve Carell in anything) and one of the previews before the film was for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The trailer has been available online since last month but seeing it on the big screen as opposed to your phone or computer feels like a whole new experience. There are several striking things in this 2 minute snapshot of this movie – Adam Scott’s douchebag enhancing chinstrap beard being one of them – but it the minimal dialogue that stands out. It’s all about image and this is a film that uses photographs as an important narrative device.
Trailer music helps set the tone and “Dirty Paws” by Of Monsters and Men gives a feeling of sadness that builds into hope as we see Ben Stiller’s Walter Mitty embark on his daydreaming adventure. The song might not even make it into the movie as some of the best trailer music doesn’t – one example off the top of my head is “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire for Where the Wild Things Are – sometimes it’s meant to be a table setter for the soundtrack that is to come.
Watch the trailer and hear the song below. “Dirty Paws” features on “My Head is an Animal” by Of Monsters and Men.
The choice of song for today is inspired by a long weekend away and the explosion of articles (no pun intended) about a certain award show last night. For the past few days I have had limited access to the internet and coming back online when there are endless think pieces and discussions about a performance from the night before can be overwhelming. Throw in a super tense episode of Breaking Bad and I’m crying out for a song that is relaxing and uplifting (I just realized how cheesy that sounds).
Anyway, I decided to go for an old favorite and that’s Explosions in the Sky; a band who provided many tracks for the Friday Night Lights soundtrack (both TV and film). The song is “First Breath After Coma” and is the musical equivalent of a Coach Taylor speech or a trip to Tami Taylor’s office for some much needed guidance.
John Oliver ended his hosting duties on The Daily Show last week and he has shown that he wasn’t just an adequate replacement, but a very good one. When it was announced that Oliver would be filling in for Jon Stewart over the summer I questioned whether they should have rotated the host with each correspondent taking a turn behind the desk. Instead they went with just John Oliver and it turned out to be an excellent move; as this piece by Jesse David Fox concludes “It’s the difference between “proven talent” and “prove it, talent!” The Daily Show has done the perfect job in preparing us for a changeover.”
Carlos Danger, Anthony Weiner’s chosen sexting name has been the gift that keeps on giving for The Daily Show this summer and John Oliver’s Danger Dance accompanied by Mystikal ft. Nivea “Danger (Been So Long)” has been a constant source of joy. So to celebrate John Oliver’s excellent turn as host we will be doing our best Carlos Danger Dance today.
Breaking Bad is back for the final 8 episodes and once again they brought their A game from the pacing to Aaron Paul’s perfect glassy eyed stare that has the ability to tear through my soul.
While I’m not going to go into too much plot detail with this Music Monday post I will say that Hank is ON IT and the choice of song that accompanied the montage of Hank looking through the evidence is brilliantly chaotic. Jim White’s “Wordmule” follows Hank on this journey of realization as he pieces together what he knows to be true, but can’t quite fathom the reality of who Heisenberg really is.
When The O.C. premiered in August 2003, the iTunes store had only been open for a few months and buying CDs didn’t seem so antiquated. The O.C. pretty much lived in the death throes of how we used to purchase and consume music; this is also the time that I still worked in a record store, a record store that unsurprisingly is no longer in existence. As I’ve previously mentioned, TV and particularly teen TV has been a constant source of finding new music and The O.C. did this on a whole new level as it embraced bands that the characters listened to.
Death Cab for Cutie posters adorned Seth Cohen’s wall and featured in the Seth Cohen Starter Pack (along with albums by Bright Eyes and The Shins, The Goonies and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay), they also played at the Bait Shop in season 2 along with a host of others such as Modest Mouse, The Walkman and The Killers.
I should really start with the theme song by Phantom Planet (which I wrote about for This Was TV) and how it sets the tone; in the pilot the song is used as a transition from the grainy Chino-cam to the glorious and bright world that Ryan will be joining after he has given Sandy Cohen a call – everything gets a lot bluer and sun-kissed as we head to Newport. The theme song is hopeful and that shot of Ryan looking out of the car window is one that is linked to both the opening credits and a shot that is repeated emphasizing Ryan’s outsider status. It’s a song that I have hated and now love; Californiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The Bait Shop as a music venue became a bit of a punch line – I seem to recall the nickname The Hate Shop – and the first time a live band appeared on that show was before The Bait Shop was conceived. Rooney (please yell their name like Luke) get the honor of being The O.C.’s inaugural band. Appearing on a teen show might not be the cool indie way to do things but as Josh Schwartz explains in this new interview with Alan Sepinwall the amount of exposure translated into sales as Rooney “saw a crazy, like 200 percent increase the week after. And then it built to a place where we got a call that the Beastie Boys would like to world premiere their song on your show.” Schwartz also notes that this was a time when there weren’t that many platforms to promote music and several other bands like U2 and Coldplay also debuted tracks on the show.
“Fix You” was one of those tracks and so The O.C. can lay claim to this song; all other shows should not attempt to use this as an emotionally manipulative tool. “Hallelujah” is a trickier case, though I would also say that this show used this song before it hit saturation point and they used it to form a connection between Ryan and Marissa. They tried to mix it up by swapping the Jeff Buckley version for Imogen Heap in the season 3 finale; sadly I find the style of Imogen Heap’s music to be intensely irritating (sorry Imogen Heap fans, I just can’t) and her music instantly sucks all the emotion out of a scene. Instead enjoy the end montage of season 1 as Ryan leaves Newport, Seth sails away, Kirsten cries and Marissa embraces day drinking.
Hallelujah is probably the most famous cover version The O.C. used, but others like Youth Group taking on “Forever Young” and Placebo’s version of “Running up the Hill” (which has also reached saturation point, take note music supervisors) provide poignant moments. The final mix CD that was released in association with the show is called “Covering Our Tracks” and has bands covering tracks that had already featured in previous seasons. One thing The O.C. attempted to do was to push the boundaries of what a TV soundtrack could be and a lot of that is thanks to music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas and Josh Schwartz’s own enthusiasm for music. In retrospect Schwartz isn’t afraid to take the blame for some of these missteps, on the Bait Shop he explains to Alan Sepinwall that “I think my appetite for seeing bands lip sync their playback on a fake set may have been greater than some of our audience members but, hey. It was fun. When else was I going to get that chance?”
Talking about the legacy of a show can sound grandiose and while The O.C. flailed at times (season 3 anyone?); it has definitely had a lasting impact on teen TV from the music to narrative aspects such as increasing plots for the parental characters. It is a testament to the soundtrack that there are too many to mention in this piece and so many more videos that I could have chosen (from this YouTube channel) – somehow Oliver features in half of the clips.
So Happy 10th Anniversary The O.C.! It won’t be long before you will be able start drinking and take all your rage out on the pool furniture.
TV Ate My Wardrobe 