- Wondering why the Governor of California signed on for
Harvey Milk Day? Consider it a case of life imitating art imitating life.
Why does Harvey Milk have a "Day" when General George Washington
doesn't? Look at the culture. More specifically, look at Californication
and Eureka -- two make believe California-based shows on TV which are
archetypes of the postmodern union of paganism and technology.
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- They're very different and represent two contrary views
of what the boundaries of TV should be. What's normal and decent and
what is just plain wrong? What are the boundaries of science and morality
in a world where the human genome has been cracked and every man is an
aspiring emperor? These are questions many Americans have faced stretching
back to the Woodstock era, the birth of TV and the rise of RCA and radio.
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- Like the Ancient Romans, we now have the answers about
how Americans feel concerning what's appropriate for our culture.
Of course no culture can be noble and strong without some form of religion
standing behind it. That said, things which in 1990 were a source of outrage
are now not only tolerated but openly celebrated. The shows we see today
on America's screens are more over the edge as the boundaries of what's
considered decent have been pushed back.
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- In HBO's Carnivale and NBC's Heroes we've seen lesbian
kissing. Is that really so bad? Isn't that a turn on for many guys and
gals these days? Is this a case of God getting ready to burn the postmodern
Sodom known as Hollywood? As viewers, should we be like "the just
Lot, vexed on all sides?" After all, the only "sin" is intolerance
these days. This is not about who is a "real" Christian or who
is not. This is not about judging others. This is about what media does
to us, our children and our neighbors.
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- Carnivale, which is set in the 1930's Great Depression,
is a show about a young Christ-like healer traveling around the U.S. with
a carnival. This young man eventually has a showdown with the Antichrist.
The young man calls premarital sex "a sin!" When was the last
time you heard that on HBO? Or even at your own church for that matter.
The point being, we can argue about which shows are good or bad or even
evil -- but in the end even if we watch said shows 24 hours per day any
of the evil we see should repulse us and send us back towards God.
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- Let's take Eureka for example. This is a show about a
group of scientists in a small town who have been producing all or most
of America's top high-tech breakthroughs since the 1940's. It seems innocent
enough.
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- The episode about "Grandfather Fargo,"
a scientist brought back to life after being frozen since 1957, was decent,
moving and beautiful -- especially when compared to the recent true life cryogenic
nightmare going on with the frozen head of the late baseball great Ted
Williams. This story, which seems as though torn from a Stephen King novel,
has raced across the Internet and covered by Yahoo! Sports, the AP and
the New York Daily News.
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- On the other hand, Californication is about a famous
writer named Hank Moody (played stunningly by David Duchovny) whose life
is ... well ... it's hard to define or explain.
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- Much like the Sopranos, Californication is a series
that pulls you in with acting and writing so brilliant you forget it's
merely a TV show. It's sad, captivating, depressing and hopeful all at
the same time. One of the strangest things about Californication is the
random and meaningless sex involved in the "plots." Who films
such things? Why film fake sex? Do you pretend to eat a hamburger when
you go to Burger King? It's pointless
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- How did my watching Californication begin? Well, recently
someone I respect very much suggested out of the blue that I watch
the show. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. The name of
the show alone was enough to scare me off. I can say that the
show has some excellent banter while other parts are deeply disturbing
and decadent.
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- Yet I must admit a few things were hysterically funny.
The character of "The Smurf" says the most outrageous things.
She kind of looks like a tiny Demi Moore -- as if you took Demi Moore
and stuck her in the dryer for too long. The Smurf is played adroitly by
actress Pamela Adlon who incidentally is the award-winning voice of the
teen character "Bobby" on Fox's King of the Hill.
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- Listening to what "The Smurf" has to say is
reason enough to watch the show. Never in the history of TV has one character
said so many hysterical things -- sick as some of them they may be. There
can be no doubt that Pamela Adlon is outrageous and larger than life on
screen despite her diminutive size. Most Americans have a friend like "The
Smurf" whom they treasure. She works hard, forgives, and is impossible
to keep down because of her spunk.
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- Yet it is the path of flawed characters like The Smurf
which make Californication the kind of show you watch and say, "Wow,
how far American has fallen as a country and how far our culture has fallen."
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- On the other hand, Californication just might say something
about how people feel, think and live in postmodern America. In the end
it's still just a show. Of course it should be noted that it's
also a show with lots of beautiful women ranging from "Michelle The
Surfer Girl" to Sonja to the cooking show host Chloe Metz to
a never ending army you can't keep up with.
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- Natascha McElhone has to be one of the most
beautiful women in the world -- no Megan Fox or Monica Belluci -- but
certainly up there. She's a natural actress and very gifted. Maybe that's
a part of the show's appeal. It's not realistic how the characters live.
But they all want something in life. And that's why the show is so character-driven.
Actually Californication is kind of like Eureka in how character driven
it is. Though it is fairly obvious that Eureka is tame and silly and
Californication is way over the top.
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- Another way to compare Eurkea to Californication is the
role McElhone plays in regard to her daughter "Becca" vs. the
"Allison" character on Eureka (played by actress Salli Richardson)
who is very protective of her son "Kevin." Salli Richardson's
character tries to be a good role model.
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- An alien force with unknown power resides in "Level
5" of Eureka's main research facility and that force is trying to
make contact with Kevin. While running things in Eureka, Allison must find
a way to protect her son from the forces that would destroy him.
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- "Purple Haze," my favorite episode of Eureka
(which is kind of like The X-Files in a way) can be seen at
http://tvshack.net/tv/Eureka/season_1/episode_10/. I just love actress Erica
Cerra, who is strong, moral, silly, kooky, sensitive and feminine
in what is certainly a male-dominated role. The characters embrace technology
but come to realize its dangers and limitations.
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- Meanwhile, Californication pushes the limits of
the human experience in regard to guilt, sin and the dark side on many
levels. The character of Ashby, a rich record producer, laments making
his ex-girlfriend have an abortion. It's also the only show I've ever seen
(keep in mind this is Showtime) where a teenager (Duchovny's and McElhone's
daughter Becca) goes from telling her father, "Don't take the Lord's
name in vain," (meaning Jesus Christ) to have the same child lead
the family and a group of visitors in an open prayer to Satan. (This prayer
is protested by one of the guests as an indulgence and outright attack
on the bedrock of Western Civilization and culture.)
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- It's almost too much to be believed. The family prayer
to Satan can be found here: "http://tvshack.net/tv/Californication/season_2/episode_4/"
Over 24,000 people have viewed this episode on TVShack.net. There is also
an ode to the Satanic Bible as "the ultimate self help book."
Seriously ... this is what Hollywood is putting out there for us to be
"entertained" by. Does the prayer to Satan and the ode to the
Satanic Bible cross a line? Or should it motivate us to increase our own
prayer life and seek humility, holiness and righteousness? Again, this
is not about judging anyone else but rather about judging our own lives.
Do you love the things that God loves and do you hate the things God hates?
Are you willing to put in the work needed to "Find out what pleases
the Lord?"
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- I loved David Duchovny in The X-Files, but I believe
Californication is his signature work. He played a Born Again Christian
in The Rapture. Who can say how he wound up as the Executive Producer on
Californication unless he wanted to put his money where his mouth is? I
believe that Mr. Duchovny's work in Zalman King's Red Shoe Diaries
should have sent up a red flag on that matter. I am certainly
not fit to judge him and make no intention here to do so. We should "discern
all things" as St. Paul said. We might as an example, criticize Dennis
Rodman's lifestyle -- but didn't he pay for the funeral of poor James Byrd
when he was murdered? We must not only look at "the bad."
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- The X-Files was very moral and so was its spin off show
The Lone Gunmen. David Duchovny was the center of a lot of that. (Zuleikha
Robinson of Hidalgo fame was my favorite character in the latter.
She's English, Scottish, Indian, Burmese, Iranian and Malaysian which allows her
to play the role of many kinds of people on TV and in the movies.)
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- Who can forget The X-Files episode entitled "Colony"
where Agent Mulder (Duchovny) was faced with the decision of assisting
aliens working with fetal tissue gathered from abortions as the gateway
to finding his abducted sister Samantha?
-
- While standing in the lab, the aliens (about five of
them who all are clones of his sister) tell Mulder, "You have no choice
... you have to help us ... we know where your sister is ... how else would
we know so much about her?"
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- Mulder tells them, "I have a choice ... and I choose
to walk away."
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- This kind of a choice is found in the Gospel of John
10:10 which says, "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but
I have come that you might have life and have it in an abundant way."
There are only two roads ... the wide and the narrow. There are only two
kinds of men ... the wise and the foolish. There are only two gates ...
the gate to heaven and the gate to hell. There are only two kinds of choices
the choice to seek humility, honor and purity and the choice to go along
with "the world."
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- The world and the flesh tell us to indulge to lust
and to seek revenge ... Yet God, through the prophets of the Old Testament
and His Son Jesus Christ, tells us to repent, forgive, show restraint
and cultivate values such as justice, charity, kindness, goodness and courage.
Through the excellent work of director Chris Carter (I believe one of Hollywood's secret
and great Born Again Christians) The X-Files often displayed the positive
qualities mentioned above.
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- Another profound statement in Californication came when
Duchovny's daughter Becca said something like, "No matter how hard
you try ... whatever you build ... it gets ruined."
-
- We might see Becca's notion playing out in the macro
and micro sense through changes in the cosmos. I speak of radioactive decay,
(if we're "evolving" why is radioactive decay "out there")
the speed of light is slowing down, the speed of the Earth's rotation was
nudged along by the 2004 Asian Tsunami (which means time is not constant
as we've been taught) and then there's the decrease in gravity on Earth.
These are major changes and discoveries which impact all sense of what
is permanent or can be built and survive in this incarnation. Can we call
this the "Becca Paradox."
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- Another sad aspect of Californication is the disgusting
role played by Kathleen Turner. Through her brilliant work in Romancing
the Stone and Jewel of the Nile she was considered one of the most beautiful
women in Hollywood. War of the Roses ruined her career. Her appearance
on the hit Friends TV show, where she showed up as a transsexual man-turned-woman,
was hard to stomach for any Turner fan like myself. Yet what's happened
to poor Kathleen in Californication is so foul, flawed and sickening that
it is the acting equivalent to what's going on with Ted Williams' frozen
head at that laboratory in Arizona.
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- Hollywood must be a very strange place to live
and work. A place where The Lone Gunmen can be cancelled after one season,
(the last episode was so beautiful and moral and it made me cry
as did the first and last episodes of Carnivale, which featured Christian
faith healing) but Californication can go for three seasons and possibly
more. The third season quickly decays into a sordid mess where Hank Moody,
ever the happy professor, becomes involved with no less than four of the
women in his class. One is his ex, another is a professor, one is a TA
and the other is a very buxom stripper/student.)
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- Like watching a car wreck unfold, we'll be there to critique
the coming mayhem. The fact that we'll continue to watch says as much
about ourselves as it does about Hollywood -- not to mention "the
choice" mentioned in John 10:10.
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- In the end, shows like Heroes, Eureka, Californication
and Carnivale can remind us that life is not about feeling or looking good
but about being good. No matter what we've done wrong in life, we are all
only one decision away from turning to the Lord. "There is more joy
in heaven for one sinner who repents than a 1,000 righteous."
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- To sum things up once again; In postmodern America, analyzing
TV shows can help us find the narrow path to the narrow gate. We must learn
to treasure the things God loves and hate the things God despises.
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