Tell Me You Love Me: Love, sex and death

Some brief thoughts on the "Tell Me You Love Me" finale coming right up...

As mentioned ad nauseum by me in the past, I watched all 10 episodes in one short burst in late June, so the longer the actual series has been on, the hazier my recollections have become. I rewatched parts of the finale On Demand the other day just as a refresher, but my insights aren't going to be nearly as sharp as those of you who've been watching it on a regular basis. Taking it couple-to-couple:

Katie & Dave: On the one hand, this story was consistently the strongest part of the show -- at times, the only reason I kept watching -- Ally Walker and Tim DeKay acted the hell out of every scene, and the two of them finally resuming some physical intimacy was an appropriate, um, climax for both their story and this season. On the other, while I like the decision to not have their moment be traditional copulation -- as Cynthia Mort told me when I interviewed her in July, she wanted it to stand out from all the other sex scenes they'd done -- the mutual masturbation pay-off didn't necessarily feel earned to me. I'm not saying the show ever needed to completely articulate all the reasons why Dave lost his libido and why Katie let him, but I also don't see their conflicts and therapy talk in this episode as being significantly different from arguments in earlier episodes that didn't lead them to the bedroom. Also, since they were a functional, happy couple in almost every way except the lack of sex, where does their story go now that the show's been renewed? I'm not saying their marriage will be perfect moving forward, but they won't have nearly as many issues to discuss with Dr. Foster as, say, Caroline and Palek. And speaking of which...

Caroline & Palek: To paraphrase Cartman, I hate them both. I hate them both so very, very much. Caroline's arguably the more horrifying of the two -- her rant about teaching the baby to hate Palek again made me think that the "Lost" producers missed the boat by not casting Sonya Walger as one of The Others -- but they really deserve to be miserable together. At the same time, I feel like a miscarriage is a missed opportunity now that the show is moving forward. I want to see Caroline discover that this thing she's been so obsessed with for so long isn't going to be the answer to all her prayers, isn't going to fill her with joy every minute of every day, and I want to see Palek grapple with the tug of paternity, the fear that he made a mistake by walking out on his wife and unborn kid, whatever. There were moments throughout the season where he seemed on the verge of actually being interested in having a child (the moon bounce, the scene at Radio Shack before the baby started crying), and those feelings no doubt would grow stronger in the face of a living, breathing baby. Having Palek return after a miscarriage will only lead us to retread territory we've been over before.

Jamie & Hugo: I'm sorry, who? Even though Jamie's sex life was the busiest and nakedest of any character on the show, there came a point in the season where it became impossible to watch her scenes without zoning out or grabbing the laptop or mentally trying to list the 12-man roster of the '93 Knicks. I like that Dr. Foster finally seemed to reach that point herself in the post-gas station therapy session, though she had a more legitimate reason to be distracted with the death of her ex-lover. Maybe Jamie's more interesting next year now that Hugo's fully in the picture and they have to deal with the repercussions of rusing to marriage five seconds after getting back together. God, I hope so.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Chair masters

Pay cable round-up time, with spoilers for, in order, "Tell Me You Love Me," "Dexter" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" coming up just as soon as I sanitize my reading chair...

So, remember all those snarky comments suggesting that "Tell Me You Love Me" front-loaded all the really graphic sex scenes in the first couple of episodes as a bait-and-switch? Episode six put the lie to that theory, between Jamie having another franks 'n beans tryst (this time with Boone from "Lost" ) and, especially, Dr. Foster and her husband proving that, yes, old people can have very loud, very happy, very naked sex in a cozy armchair. While I'm sure that most of the audience (what's left of it by this episode) is focusing on all that exposed, not so youthful flesh, what struck me about the scene was that it was the first time all season (other than that half-glimpsed oral sex scene -- also featuring May -- in the premiere) that any characters on this show actually seemed to be enjoying themselves while doing the deed. Even Caroline and Palek's pot-fueled make-up sex wasn't significantly less mechanical than all those times they've been trying to impregnate her. And with the scene where May goes to meet her old lover, I feel like we have enough backstory now to legitimately consider the Fosters our fourth couple, which means I can say that I like half of the couples on this show, instead of only one out of three.

Meanwhile, the stories of my most and least favorite couples played out in some parallel. Dr. Foster tells Dave and Katie to stop trying to have sex, which of course opens the dam for them to finally start talking, even a little, about their problem. And Caroline and Palek, having quit both their fertility plans and therapy, finally enjoy each other's company, however briefly (and however aided by marijuana). I have to say, by the way, that while I absolutely despise Caroline, Sonya Walger's doing a hell of a job playing this spoiled, controlling ice queen, and watching her rip apart the sandwich lady (after having made an ass of herself with a temper tantrum in front of her boss) made me hope that the "Lost" producers are watching and realize that Penny might be far more useful as a villain than as Desmond's long-lost love.

"Dexter," meanwhile, has a lot of fun with this Narcotics Anonymous development, as what seemed at first to be a big hassle for Dexter turned out to be very helpful. It has Doakes "understanding" what his suspicions about Dexter really meant, has Rita taking him back, and it gives him a place where he can talk semi-openly about his addiction to murder, so long as he couches it in vague terminology. Plus, Jaime Murray from "Hustle"! What's not to like?

One thing I found particularly interesting was Dexter's dilemma about whether to break his pattern to stop the car dealer from killing his next victim. The overt admission that he doesn't target other killers to save people -- that they just make good targets and allows him to keep his word to Harry -- isn't exactly a surprise. But spelling it out like that, at a time when Dexter is being chased by a seemingly decent cop in Lundy -- in an episode where Lundy rips apart the audience's rationale for liking a vigilante serial killer with his "The worst killers in history are the ones who think the murders were somehow just" speech -- is a choice I'm not sure a lot of writing staffs would make. The trend in most series with morally complex protagonists is to slowly sand off their edges over time (even "The Shield" did that for a while with Mackey), and I admire team "Dexter" in their willingness to embrace everything that's wrong about their main character.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is coming perilously close to falling off my radar. That's three absolute stinkers in a row now. When "The Anonymous Donor" aired, I wrote, "The genius of "Curb" so often is that you know where a joke is going (but) laugh anyway." Here, I saw almost every joke in advance -- the toaster preventing Larry from getting Loretta to the interview, the phone swap and the havoc it wreaked -- but they were so predictable even within the "Curb" formula that I didn't find any of them funny. And the one pay-off I didn't predict -- the exterminator trying to stomp the rat-dog -- was one of those moments, like McEnroe inviting Larry to the party last week, where the show sacrifices any semblance of real human behavior at the expense of a gag. The guy's an exterminator; why is he just trying to stomp on this thing? And how can he not tell a rat from a dog? This is a far cry from season three's "Club Soda and Salt," where they managed to make professional expertise itself the joke.

As I recall, last season had a similar trend -- a few good episodes at the start, followed by a long stretch of catastrophe -- and I don't know how much longer I can stick around to see if things improve. It's emotionally draining to watch this show even when it's funny. The last few weeks ahve just been painful.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Tell Me You Love Me: Dave and Katie on the couch

Spoilers for the fourth episode of the maddening, annoying, occasionally awesome "Tell Me You Love Me" coming up just as soon as I go out for ice cream...

As I've written a few times since the summer began, I watched all 10 episodes of this show in a rush, even though much of it -- specifically, two-thirds of our three main couples -- either bored me (Jamie/Hugo) or outright angered me (Caroline/Palek). I stuck around for an episode or two past the pilot, I'll admit, because I wanted to see how far out they were going to push the edge of the nudity envelope, but by the time we got to this fourth episode, the sex scenes had already been reduced in both frequency and edge-of-envelope-pushing. It was the non-sexual content of this episode that kept me watching, dammit.

In a series in which almost nothing ever happens, this was the episode where a lot happened (relatively). Dave finally joins Katie in therapy (in the best scene of the series). Hugo cuts the cord with Jamie, Jamie starts hanging with Boone from "Lost," and Jamie goes to see Dr. Foster and reveals that all her paranoia about Hugo's unfaithfulness was simply her own guilt over never being monogamous. And Caroline and Palek? Well, they're still having the same fights over and over and annoying the hell out of me, but at least Dr. Foster finally called out Caroline on her complete and utter self-absorption about this fertility process. (And Caroline's stunned reaction to that was one of the few times in the series that I laughed, though I'm not sure I was supposed to. I just hate her and her stupid suit-buying husband so, so much.)

Now, things happening with characters I don't care about wouldn't be enough to make me keep watching. But by this point I was so wrapped up in the Dave and Katie storyline and Tim DeKay and Ally Walker's great performances (which are totally award-worthy but will be ignored because everyone hates this show) that Dave's explosion in therapy really shook me. What's as great about that scene is how each of them has a right to be mad, and yet they're each missing the point. Katie feels like Dave just trashed their entire life with his mockery of Cheerios and minivans, but Dave's just trying to do what she and Dr. Foster want and express some of the reasons behind this prolonged sexual slump.

Dave feels too overwhelmed by all the parenting minutiae -- as supported by the later scene where they're talking about head lice and car loans -- to view his wife as anything but a partner in child-rearing. And yet any couple with kids (particularly those who don't have a nanny or other assistance) get bogged down with all of that and somehow still know where their libidos are being kept. There's something more going on here, and while I won't say what the rest of it is (or even if the show gets around to explaining the rest), the performances by DeKay and Walker and the obvious love between the two characters -- something that I never really feel with the other two, even at times when they're being affectionate -- kept me watching till the end.

What did everybody else think? It seems more and more people are dropping off every week. For those who've stuck it out, was this episode enough to keep you around for the long haul? Click here to read the full post

Tell Me You Love Me episode 3 open thread

If anyone's still watching -- and judging by the comments last week, it sounds like most of you have given up -- feel free to talk about the third episode of "Tell Me You Love Me" here. Click here to read the full post

Tell Me You Love Me episode 2 open thread

As I said last week, I'm not going to weigh in week by week on "Tell Me You Love Me," but fire away on all things episode 2. Click here to read the full post

Tell Me You Love Me: Things you don't see every day

Spoilers for the premiere of "Tell Me You Love Me" coming up just as soon as I (euphemism deleted)...

This is going to be a tricky show for blogging purposes. As I've mentioned, I watched all 10 episodes in about a week and a half nearly three months ago, and the only one I actually took notes on at the time was this first one. Much as I liked it -- or, at least, much as I was interested enough to keep going -- it's not a show I especially want to go back and watch again just to remember which fight took place in which episode. (That's as opposed to, say, season four of "The Wire," where I initially watched all the episodes under similar circumstances, but only enjoyed the episodes more on second and third viewing.)

So outside of the premiere, episode four (which features an amazing therapy scene that I can practically recite from memory, it was so good) and the finale, I don't think I'm going to do weekly reviews. I'll set up an open thread every Sunday night, and maybe weigh in in the comments, depending on how many people respond.

And now that it's finally aired, I'm curious to see the reaction of the general public -- both to the "How in the world aren't the actors having sex?" scenes like the young couple Jamie and Hugo going at it after their big fight, and to the show's claustrophobic portrayal of the minutiae of three couples in trouble.

From the start to the end, the couple I was most interested in was Dave and Katie (Tim DeKay and Ally Walker), the one pairing not having any sex at all. The story of Jamie and Hugo never much interested me, and Caroline and Palek (the couple with fertility issues) become toxic so quickly that, good as the performances were by Sonya Walger and Adam Scott, I needed to take a few breaks from them in mid-viewing.

But Dave and Katie's problem -- they're clearly very much in love with each other, but the physical spark has just vanished -- really fascinated me, as did the performances by DeKay and Walker. I really loved that sequence where they did the tag-team bedtime reading for the kids, then stripped and got into bed as impersonally as if they were factory co-workers taking off their coveralls and punching the clock.

And whether or not you find the sex scenes in the other storylines illustrative or not to those couples, I think the effect they have on viewing the Dave and Katie storyline is really important, because it's exactly what they aren't doing, ever.

I want to write more right now, but I'm afraid much of it would be colored by what I know is coming, plus I'm still wrestling with my own reasons for wanting to quickly watch the damn thing all the way through. Time after time, my wife would ask what I had done that day at work, and I would give her an update on "Tell Me You Love Me" (she watched the pilot and another early episode and didn't care for it at all), and she would say, "Why are you still watching that?" And even though I'm a guy who gets paid to clearly articulate his opinions about television, I'm not still not 100 percent sure of the answer.

I think Cynthia Mort, the creator, writes very good dialogue and has an eye for the minutiae of relationships, the moments so small and/or annoying that most relationship shows either can't or won't get into. As I said, I liked a lot of the performances, particularly DeKay and Walker. And there was definitely a feeling of, "Well, I've watched them all fight this long; might as well see how it turned out." But this is ordinarily the kind of show -- humorless, angry and too focused on the problems of upper middle white heteros -- I don't respond strongly to, yet I was obsessed with it for a while there. Sure, part of me was intrigued by the sex scenes -- not because they're arousing in any way (they're the opposite of that) -- and kept going just to see how much they could get away with, but I stuck around long past the point where all the balls, boobs and BJs had all become just one giant blur.

I'm curious if this is another show like "The Wire." Not that it's in the class of one of the greatest dramas in TV history, just that "The Wire" tends to play better in chunks (especially at the start of a season) than it does watching an hour at a time week to week, and my experience of viewing "Tell Me You Love Me" won't be the same as the average viewer's.

So, what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Tony goes to war

Today's column starts off with a review of the new HBO documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq":

How, James Gandolfini was asked at a recent press conference, was he changed by participating in a documentary about Iraq war veterans who had suffered traumatic injuries?

"I don't want -- it's not about me," squirmed Gandolfini. "I'm not trying to be antagonistic in any way, but I'd like the questions directed towards other things besides how it changed me."

The former "Sopranos" leading man has always been one of our most publicity-averse stars, a man who wants people to be interested in the characters he plays, not his own life.

But with "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" (Sunday at 10:30 p.m., HBO), Gandolfini has found a way to put his celebrity to good use. His presence as producer and, especially, on-camera interviewer in the film is going to bring it a lot more attention than the dozens of other documentaries currently being made about Iraq.

There's also a brief review of "Tell Me You Love Me," in which I try to focus on the non-nekkid aspects of the show. For the whole thing, click here. Click here to read the full post

It's not porn. It's HBO.

This morning's column goes a little more in depth in looking at the fun, sexy time (or not) that is HBO's upcoming "Tell Me You Love Me":

"For the actors, did anybody actually, uh, do it?"

The question hangs in the air of the ballroom -- site of a July press conference to discuss HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me," easily the most sexually explicit drama in American TV history -- like a clumsy pick-up line. Yet contained within its Beavis & Butt-head phrasing are many of the emotions associated with sex: anticipation, discomfort, anger, relief, even disappointment.

The reporters cringe at the wording, but they've all been buzzing for weeks about the show's sex scenes -- many of them shot in a way that makes it hard to imagine how the actors didn't, uh, do it -- and they crane their necks forward for an answer. The "Tell Me" producers and actors shift uncomfortably in their seats, irritated and eager to deny the crowd the satisfaction it seeks.

"Next question," snaps creator Cynthia Mort.

"I know I didn't," quips actress Ally Walker.

The reporter presses on, "I'm assuming it was fake, but how did you go about making it look so authentic, and why did you have to do that?"

Finally, "Tell Me" co-star Michelle Borth -- participant in a number of the series' rawest moments -- loses her patience.

"We are not porn stars," she says, testy. "We're actors. And I think part of our job in any scene, whether it's a sex scene or, you know, a fight scene or, you know, an emotional scene, you do the best that you can to do it authentically and honest. So, you know, we were doing the sex scenes. We were doing them to make you ask that question, basically."

That question has enveloped discussion of "Tell Me You Love Me" (which debuts Sept. 9 at 9 p.m.) to the point where it's hard to consider the non-sexual aspects. Even when the characters are fully clothed and not touching, this is a painfully intimate look at the problems that can plague a relationship, but the word "intimate" connotes sex. It may not even matter that most of the sex scenes, usually born less of lust than desperation and fear, almost work as an advertisement for celibacy.

To read the full thing, click here. (Or here for the printer-friendly version. It's longer than usual, so you may be better off going straight to the latter version.) Click here to read the full post