Magic City

HBO has Boardwalk Empire, and AMC scored with Mad Men. ABC tried with PAN AM, and NBC failed with The Playboy Club. It seems that the dramatic period piece is hard to get right. While beautiful costumes and an impeccable set are obvious ingredients, it seems  your odds of success are better if you have the freedom that comes with  being a cable network. Starz might have realized this and is exercising all its liberties with the new series Magic City. Unfortunately, it is going to take more than copious nudity to keep people interested in this choppy, underperformed production. 

At a glance, the plot is intriguing enough. Set in 1950’s Miami,  Jeffery Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural) stars as  Isaac “Ike” Evans, the owner of Miami’s most prestigious hotel the Miramar Playa.  Tan, muscular and standing 6’ 2”, Jeffery Dean Morgan looks the part of a Miami high roller, but gives an average performance. This will need to improve if the show has any chance of achieving a fraction of the success it is aiming for. 

As the sole proprietor of the hotel, Evans will do anything to keep his livelihood thriving, even make a ominous deal with Jewish mob boss Ben “the Butcher” Diamond (Danny Huston.)  The pilot introduces the viewer to this main vein of the story, but it also takes the opportunity to make the audience acquainted with every other potential character and B-line that will undoubtedly come to flourish this season. The entire Evans family make appearances.  A notable performance are given by Alex Rocco who plays Arthur Evans, Isaac’s father. Rocco is most famous for his role as Moe Greene in The Godfather. Since most of his lines in Magic City are discussing shady dealings, Rocco’s believability is no surprise; he has had some practice over the years. Stevan Strait also is wonderful as  Evans’ oldest son, the hardworking playboy.  In addition to the whole Evans clan, the fifty minute pilot also bounces through fringe hotel workers, everyone’s love interests, the Cuban revolution’s effect on Miami, and Frank Sinatra’s meal preferences. For this reason, the whole thing is chaotic and overwhelming. It is difficult to decide who and what you are suppose to care about, since nothing is allowed to develop naturally...or at all really. 

For certain, throughout this unfocused mess there are a lot of naturally-developed breasts which adds to the historical accuracy of the show. That may sound a bit absurd until you stop and consider that today’s Miami, Florida is full of surgically-sculpted, hairless, itsy-bitsy women. Finding local extras that fit the look of a full-bodied, mid-20th century woman was probably not easy and required conscience screening. This goes for the guys as well. The beaches in Magic City  are full of men with a full chests of hair, since waxing wasn’t big in those days. Costumes and expert make up can only do so much, and there are times when they do nothing at all. Casting Director Bill Marinella did well in remembering that. 

When the characters are dressed, the costumes are perfect. Adding beauty and romanticized-nostalgia to each scene, the clean suits and lush dresses standout amid the  lack luster dialogue. When Evans zips his much younger, diamond-draped wife, Vera (Olga Kurylenko) into her emerald-green, full shirted evening gown before a big party, his young daughter comes in complaining, “Fluffy won’t get off my sweater and he’s making it all...” Evans chimes in, “Fluffy.” Evan is dripping of dapper in a perfectly tailored, black-and-white tuxedo which takes the edge off the horrible pun. The rest of the show Evans sports a black suit in the blazing Florida heat. This is in stark contrast to the weather appropriate wardrobe choices of all the other men bringing  full meaning to the term “black sheep.”

Most complimenting to the costumes is the Miramar Playa Hotel. The set was built near the Miami International Airport and covers a 150,000 square foot area. An investment like that shows. The luxurious, neo-baroque hotel has a subterranean club, Atlantis  that shares a wall with the outdoor pool. Dead bodies will probably float by it on a bustling Saturday in future episodes, but for now  Evan and his playboy son get their best thinking done in there.  The lobby of the hotel  is fashioned with shiny creme marble, a robust chandelier, enormous black columns, and  an ornate “stairway to nowhere.” The show’s director, Mitch Glazer explained "The elevators would stop at the mezzanine floor, one floor above the lobby, and there was nothing up there but the manager's office—and the stairway...The women would get off on that level and then descend to their husbands. It was just for the theater of it."

Glazer was once a Cabana boy at a large Miami hotel, so the show is peppered with an inside look of how these places really operated. For instance, Evans points out a built-in sprayer in the lobby that mists out air perfumed of “ocean and new money,” and the hotel is kept cold so that woman must to wear their furs. Details like these have a feel of reality that only experience can give. 

Still this is a drama, not a trivia show. While interesting facts, glamorous costumes, real boobs, and a stunning lobby are eye-catching elements, they can only hold one’s attention for so long.  What really keeps a television show going is plot depth, character development, and quality acting. Magic City has not delivered much of these sustaining elements. If that doesn’t change, it will undoubtable join its unsuccessful predecessors in the dramatic period piece graveyard.  

Between Two Ferns

Being between a rock and a hard place is pretty uncomfortable. But even more uncomfortable than that is the interviewee chair on the web series Between Two Ferns. The FunnyorDie.com show is hosted by Zach Galifianakis. It's a delightful, deadpan delivery of awkward, absurd, and sometimes sexually inappropriate questioning. Michael Cera, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, and Steve Carell are among the celebrities that have sat down to be poked and prodded by Galifianakis. It’s hard to tell if they are in on the joke since, at moments, the exchanges flow like a script, and other times the guests’ faces flash with rage, shock, embarrassment, and disgust.

The appeal of Between To Ferns is that it makes a mockery of the celebrity interviews to which we are accustomed. Normally, beautiful people sit in flattering light on a expertly designed set. They are soft-balled questions that allow their answers to be full of wit, charm, and humor. They are unattainably perfect before the interview and gods when it is finished. And you, mortal, are mere dirt. Between To Ferns changes all that and it’s hard not to love being reminded that people are people regardless of fame and fortune.

For instance, when sitting down with Natalie Portman, Galifianakis asks if she also shaved her vagina for “V for Vendetta.” While millions of guys think about this part of her and many woman want to be her because of that, rarely do we imagine the gorgeous celeb propping her leg on the side of a tub with a disposable, pink Bic razor in hand and being just another girl with pubic hair. Natalie refuses to answer and returns to the plane of human, if only for the three minute interview.

Most of the interviews hover around 5 minutes and are peppered with moments where Galifianakis abruptly pitches or applies SpeedStick (the show’s alleged sponsor.) In addition to two chairs, two potted pteridophytes, and a black curtain, the low-budget production is furnished with a small table that houses a big, red Easy button. It is used by Galifianakis to cue animal sounds that cut off guests or fill in their stunned silence with turkey gobbles and chirping crickets.

Sometimes you even feel bad for them. Like when Galifianakis asks Ben Stiller if he ever thought about following in his parents’ footsteps and pursuing comedy. The man is obviously as aware as we all are that he is in the denouement of his career and grasping to hold on to his status. You can’t blame him for ripping off his mic and storming off. Wouldn’t we all do the same if someone at the height of their own glory pointed out how ours was fast-fleeting?

Still, it’s hard not to be amused by it, even when it makes you tense or full of pity. Between Two Ferns is great for the same reason we Google the names of stars followed by the phrase “without makeup” or "FAIL". Celebrities are rich and beautiful. We get uncomfortable when our significant other lusts for an A-lister. And since we can’t throw rocks at these people ourselves, at least we can watch them wish they were hiding under one.

Mad (Wo)Men

These are dark days for the vagina. In many states, federal funding is being cut by the millions for organizations that provide low-cost family planning services, cervical and breast cancer screenings, and annual exams for women. Panels full of religious male experts are the priority voices in federal debates on health insurance coverage as it pertains to birth control. Rush Limbaugh has made it so women are deemed sluts and prostitutes for taking the pill. Apparently, our society has taken a half century leap backward. If AMC’s Mad Men is any indication of the oppressive attitudes to be found when unchecked males are allowed to run things, vaginas and the women who own them have much reason to be alarmed.

Set on Madison Avenue in New York during the 1960’s, this intriguing series revolves around the employees of the fictitious Sterling Copper advertising agency. The show gets its title from a popular term of the time, a self-assigned nickname of the advertising industry’s male executives: Madison avenue advertising Men. Of course, the double meaning is there. These crazy boys are smoking constantly, high rolling in strip clubs, and living in the fast-paced ad-world. This alone would make for a successful television drama, but ironically the most captivating part of it all is not the men. It’s the show's insane image of the womanhood and the great actresses that give it form.

Female characters in Mad Men portray the polarized femme of the 1960’s. They take the role of the all-serving secretary, putting her best assets on display or suggesting that others do the same for the purpose of making financial and career gains. The newest addition to the firm, executive secretary Peggy Olsen (exceptionally played by Elisabeth Moss) is bluntly made aware of this reality along with the viewer. Like us, Olsen knew this was how things were done, but hearing it is still quite unsettling. There is no respite in the workplace. The less glamourous, trail-blazing choice was an option. To show the fate of any woman who chose successful career over the perfect family, there is a woman doctor. She is plain, cold, and covered. Costumes are a fundamental element of all period pieces, and Mad Men is no exception. Always used to set the time and mood in a production, the impeccable, stunning costumes of Mad Men also give a wealth of insight. The subtle patterns of a man’s tie tell his place on the ladder. A wife’s elegant pajamas match her desire to be perfect for her late arriving husband. The length and tightness of a woman’s dress show the values and intentions of the route she chose.

Regardless of which way a woman went, Mad Men makes it clear her path would always be traveled beneath man. When a wealthy, intelligent female client unapologetically challenge dashing mad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) during a meeting, he figuratively beats his chest and jabbing, “I’m not going to let a woman talk to me like this.” The entire episode Draper teeters back and forth between the chauvinistic gorilla and progressive gentleman which makes for a cloudy introduction to our protagonist.

Literally hard to see through are the many smoked-filled scenes of the show. Everyone is smoking. All the time. Though this effect will be nostalgic for some, the plot does not romanticize the habit. It was during this decade that research showing the harmful effects of smoking began to surface, and Draper’s main project and problem during the pilot episode is coming up with a new campaign for Lucky Strikes. He can no longer say cigarettes are good for you and the viewer is privy to the hilarious denial of tobacco CEOs who refuse to admit their product is harmful. If only they could see New York City now!

With smoking banned in so many public spaces, all the lighting up in the show is jarring at first. Then it becomes a bit of overkill especially when an OB/GYN puffs away during a pap smear. This unthinkable act is quickly topped when the arrogant doctor begins threatening to take away the patients birth control if she “abuses” it and warns “easy woman don’t find husbands.” Given the current times, it is at this moment Mad Men transforms itself from a drama on iconic times to an ominous premonition of current ones. If the right has their way, that is the kind of horrific exchange that will be had in doctors’ offices across the country. The shameful part is it won’t be an original era. Mad Men is a well cast and fascinating reminder of where we came from and where we are headed if we forget how far we have traveled.