Dexter S04E12 "THE GETAWAY" Review

Blood sets Dexter Morgan’s teeth on edge, but the season four finale of “Dexter” has enough twists and turns to pump your blood with enough adrenaline for you to not notice you’ve chewed your nails off till its shocking conclusion. Showtime Channel’s Emmy nominated “Dexter”, based on the Jeff Lindsey novel “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” started in syndication in the fall of 2006. Serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a Miami PD Blood Spatter analyst by day and vigilante serial killer by night.

The series began with Dexter as a cold, solitary, and emotionless monster and by the start of this season he has come to learn he does feel emotion and starts a family, while quenching his need to kill. The main storyline of the episode has Dexter tying up all the loose ends with the Trinity Killer (John Lithgow) in an intense game of cat-and-mouse. Trinity has discovered Dexter’s ruse with him and plans to flee town after a killing spree that has evaded the Miami P.D. for decades.
The story for the episode takes the relationship the season has built so far between these two killers and relentlessly throws curve balls as you watch both of these calculating serial killers throw each other off their game as they up the stakes on each other. Trinity comes to the Dexter’s station and threatens him to leave him alone. Dexter chases and incapacitates Trinity only for Trinity to escape later when Dexter is arrested for fleeing the scene of a car crash during the pursuit. The script throws both of these characters into a chase that brings the world crashing down on each other. They both are putting each other at risk of losing everything. Dexter’s pursuit is putting Trinity at risk of being discovered after evading justice for 30 years and Trinity’s pursuit puts our hero at risk of losing his new family and revealing his killing tendencies to the world. All bets are off by the start of this episode. The tension and the stakes have never been higher and it keeps you on edge.

Hall’s brilliant portrayal of a vigilante serial killer walks the line between dark comedy and creepy as he tries to overcome his “dark passenger” for the sake of keepin his new family. Hall is at his A-game with his performance in this episode as you watch him slowly break down and get more emotional than he’s ever been on the show. A Great performance by Hall, but the standout performance is the chilling one by Lithgow as Trinity. Lithgow is the best antagonist this show has had by a long shot. Lithgow, better known as for his comedic role as High Commander Dick Salmon in “Third Rock From the Sun,” delivers the performance of his career with his role. Trinity’s arc is layered as the audience sees he is far worse killer than Dexter could ever want to be.

The conclusion between these two reach a sympathetic note, only to lead to a reveal that will go down as one of the most shocking endings for a season finale in television with the Death of Dexter’s wife. The script ends on a melancholy mood dying for the next season because of the possibilities the show opens itself with the loss of a character as important to our hero’s humane-side for the past four seasons as Rita Morgan (Julie Benz) has been. The ending is indicative of the risks the show is willing to take to avoid staleness and repetition. You can’t help but applaud the writers for giving the fourth season such a memorable finish. Overall, the show has reached a new realm with how well each episode has built up to this climatic and exciting conclusion. It’s going to be extremely difficult for the show to top itself next season as it has done each year. This season is nothing short of masterful in making the audience emotionally connected to where the characters have gotten to, but also terrified and excited for where they are all going.

THE CROW PAGE 38

Andres Gallego
11-14-2010
Reviewing The Arts
“The Crow Page 38” by James O’Barr

A place of intense pain and anguish can produce truly moving art, and it is such the case with James O’Barr’s “The Crow.” The experience of seeing his work is a mental challenge as it asks you to almost take your emotional temperature in an odd way. “It wasn’t like she had an illness or something that was anticipated. Just one day out of the blue, someone decided to get drunk and drive down a side street at 70 miles an hour and suddenly she was just gone. I don’t know if I actually believed in a god, but if I did I really felt betrayed by him. Why make this beautiful perfect flower and just trample it? What was the meaning of that? I almost felt like I was being punished like I’d finally been shown this thing and allowed hold it for just a moment and then it was taken away as a bitter joke. I definitely lost my faith in human nature for awhile there.” Recalled comic book author O’Barr on the incident that triggered the creation of his cathartic graphic novel “The Crow.” O’Barr created this story about a man who returns from the dead to seek justice for the gang murder of his girlfriend and himself, after experiencing a state of intense pain with the loss of his fiancé’ and not knowing how to deal with it. The graphic novel is filled with many astounding panels, but the one that truly stands out is page 38. Page 38 is where you feel and smell O’Barr’s blood, sweat, and tears the vividly on. You can sense that this may have been the most difficult thing O’Barr had to draw because in this panel, a ghost figure and a crow are getting ready to take away Shelly from Eric in a grisly manner.

The female, Shelly, represents a pure spirit with her being bare and naked. “Shelly was a just a literal translation of Beverley. I just tried to capture her innocence. Eric was a vehicle for my emotions since I was never quite comfortable in drawing myself.” as O’Barr explains the intention he had in drawing these characters. The Crow and Skull Cowboy (only his gun is shown) are the manifestation of all the negativity and the darkness that can come from life. Most importantly on the panel, you can sense that Eric is O’Barr’s wanting of not wanting to lose that moment with a loved one. As if Eric is demanding for time to not move on and he desperately doesn’t want to lose that white light in his life. The gun in that sequence represents the cold power of life in that scene. A gun has so much potential power in the fact that the loud shots fired have taken lives, changed history, and causes insant fear. Looking deeper into the page, the page is a three act structure. The first act is that sense of euphoric sense of happiness you get in a wonderful relationship translated into the line “Here’s where you smile”. The second act, is that moment you do want that light in your life for the rest of your life and you make the inner pact in yourself to never let it go. That second act is translated to the line “Now the Eternal Love part.” Then the last act is the crow and the Skull Cowboy readying to take away this happiness in Eric’s life. That third act is translated into the line “Idiot.” What O’Barr is trying to say in the page is that happiness, while sublime, will never last. There is no such thing as eternal happiness. Looking at the page, the crow is the only thing that looks towards the camera. Although Eric is a manifestation of O’Barr’s emotions, The Crow is a manifestation of O’Barr’s bitterness and anger towards the world. The whole page is O’Barr himself is referring to the reader and him breaking the forth wall in a metaphorical sense.

Overall, this page is definitely rooted in a place of intense bitterness and anger towards the world and you can sense O’Barr’s distain for life and human nature in this panel. It captured his emotional state so vividly and better than any panel that O’Barr almost makes it impersonal with the framing of each of the characters on the page. These are his dreams and memories. You are outside and given only a peek into his world. While hard to feel anything positive has come from this page in the end, the page makes you feel that sense of loss that O’Barr had at that point in his life. Anybody can relate and recall a moment that they lost someone important in their life, and O’Barr hits that emotional nail straight on it’s head. While O’Barr’s artwork while disturbing, it’s personal and elegantly beautiful. Something that is seldom seen in today’s comics and graphic novels. Overall, O’Barr’s artwork is moving and emotionally charged with every line that it asks you to feel the intense pain that the author endured. With the experience of viewing this piece, you come to know O’Barr more personally without having to have met him.

Calvin Harris, "Ready for the Weekend" Review Rewrite

Calvin Harris, “Ready for the Weekend” (Fly Eye, Columbia, 2009)

With the help of the Myspace internet community Calvin Harris has become one of the United Kingdom’s most prolific up and coming artists. After releasing a couple of demos on the website for a couple of years, Harris signed a record deal with EMI in 2006. The label decided to take a chance and release an album by Harris. Harris burst into the Electro-pop scene in 2007 with his amusingly titled debut Album “I Created Disco.” The album surpassed expectations by remaining in the top 10 UK charts for a long while. While the album wasn’t critically praised, it had attained a small following for the Scottish native in the pop/electro scene. Harris’ first album was received by most critics as a handbag electro pop debut that showed promise for Harris with the hit singles “The Girls,” “Acceptable in the 80’s,” and “Merrymaking at my Place.” Then Harris released his follow-up album “Ready for the Weekend” in 2009.
“I Created Disco” was rough in establishing it’s tone at the start, but “Ready for the Weekend” does that effectively from first track. The album has a smooth and inviting tone showing Harris’ sense of humor. With his debut album called “I Created Disco,” it’s only fitting that this album should start with a combination of electro bass keys and a saxophone solo taken out of a blues song, only to be faded out into a full electro-bit track drowning out all but Harris’ much improved vocals with the saxophone to not sound off till the very end. This opening invites the listener in with the promise of a good time if you go for the ride and for the most part, Harris delivers. Harris took the safe route with the first album being an electronically composed one, but this time he experiments with actual instruments such as the guitar rifts in “Blue” or “Worst Day.”
You can tell Harris has taken the criticism from the last album to heart. His vocals ruined the rhythms and beats of his previous album with songs like “Colours.” This time around his vocals aren’t as clunky and don’t try to upstage his own DJ work as the melodies are the driving force of the album. With the songs “Flashback” and “I’m Not Alone,” Harris is going for a different vibe by putting more of himself and baring his soul. The last album was randomly strung together beats that sounded good without a clear theme or artist intention. Harris gives more of himself in “Flashback” with the lyrics “If I could change my state of mind/then I would disappear/The love I get from you is something I can’t chance/and I can let you slip away without a second glance.” This album displays Harris’ talents in a collaborative vocal effort with Dizzie Rascal and Chrome in the fun and inspired “Dance wiv Me.” When the album works it makes you want to pump up your fist and cheer as that roller coaster is going up that hill.
While “Ready for the Weekend” is an improvement, most of the album’s later songs all feel like filler. This half of the album loses its momentum and becomes a slower and mostly non-vocal performance with “Relax,” Limits,” and “Burn Nights.” The album falls into a stump that it never quite recovers from while you wait for the real songs to come on. This last half isn’t enough to stomp the album as the last one as “Dance wiv me” swoops in to save it and leave you with a good taste in your mouth.
“Ready for the Weekend” is still an enjoyable and more mature artistic effort from Harris. Harris still listens as an artist with a lot of potential still ahead of him. His sound is a smooth transition for those otherwise not a fan of electro-pop. The album is a great next step in the right direction for Harris. He still isn’t quite there yet as an artist, but where he is now is a really fun and highly enjoyable ride for anyone looking for something new. As Harris puts it ‘These are the good times in your life, so put on a smile and it will be alright.”