Epic Season Finales part 2: Manhattan

The years surrounding World War II are a fascinating time in U.S. and world history. Aside from the myriad of boots on the ground stories, this was a time for huge technological advancements. While on one hand, science was working to improve, simply, and advance the lives of citizens, science was also working out a way to destroy all human life in a large area in one fell swoop. Exciting times, no? Manhattan is the story of just one piece of this huge, atomic puzzle. It tells the story of the dozens of scientists sequestered out into the New Mexico desert trying to invent the first atomic bomb, also known as The Manhattan Project. The show focuses on a one core group of scientists under the watchful eye of Oppenheimer. The first season deals with the struggle behind figuring out how to make a bomb that would work, and the second season (which had its finale on Monday) dealt with the building and testing of bomb ending with that very first successful test and the mushroom cloud.

This show is mostly based on actual events though is embellished for dramatic effect. There are soviet spies, conspiracy, love, deception, murder, and most of all Science! This very quickly became one of the top shows in my household. While we're not super great at watching shows live, Manhattan is never on our DVR for more than a day. I am extremely emotionally invested in the lives of all of these characters and I cried at the end of the season finale. While the show is not getting a ton of attention now, I think it has the potential to be as big as and as good as "Boardwalk Empire."

My husband is a history nerd and I am not but we are both entirely obsessed with this show. Do yourself a favor and find a way to see this show. Torrent it if you have to. You will be (pardon the pun) blown away. Okay, that pun really hurt. In all seriousness, Frank and Liza Winters are my favorite tv power couple right now and they used science and insanity to burrow their way into my heart.

Okay, Spoilers ahead...


The season finale finds us on the day of the first atomic bomb test. It is pouring down rain but the military is stubborn and refuses to call it off. While one hand full of scientists is running around trying to make sure the test will come off without a hitch, another handful of scientists are separately plotting ways to sabotage the test either to stall the test until weather is more predictable or to cause the bomb to function abnormally killing those on the ground and sending a message to the U.S. military. While the viewer has known who the spies on the hill have been the entire season, their status as traders has just come to light among their colleagues.  There is an old saying in playwriting that if a gun is placed on a table in the first act, it must go off by the end of the third and as with all good writing, it does so in the way that is both the least expected and most heartbreaking.

The best kind of show is one in which none of the characters are actually evil, they just all have different ideas about what doing the right thing looks like. This show is an excellent example of this. While Dr. Winters (the physicist one) thinks that dropping the bomb on an uninhabited island is the best coarse of action, Dr. Winters (the biologist) doesn't think we should be dropping it on ANYTHING until we know what the ramifications for all living creatures within the fallout range first. Dr. Issaics embraces the idea of becoming the monster in the rest of the world's eyes in hopes that the fear of what our military is capable of will scare any possible uprisings into submission. With a problem as complicated as what to do with an atomic bomb, there can be no right answer and the consequences for every answer are astronomical. In the end, it doesn't actually matter what any of the scientists or double-agents think because the U.S. Military is going to do exactly as they please regardless.

I appreciate shows with a finite run capacity. This forces concise storytelling and strategic writing. If your main character is introduced as having terminal cancer in season one, it starts to get creepy if you let the show draw out too long. Same goes for historical event-based shows. If you have a team of scientists working to build Little Boy and Fat Man, at some point you have to have a mushroom cloud. I appreciate the urgent pace of "Manhattan," as it aids the idea that these scientists were being rushed for answers and feeling the pressure of the daily soldier death count on their shoulders. And sometimes when someone has that much pressure on them, there isn't time to look around and ask, "Is this even a good idea?"

Epic Season Finales part 1: Fargo

Two of my favorite shows on television had their season two finales within the last week and I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. If you haven't been watching "Fargo," on the FX Network and "Manhattan," on WGN you have been MISSING OUT on some of the best stuff available on television today. These shows are both intense, dramatic, and supremely well-made. Neither of these shows have been nominated for an Emmy this year, but I'm betting they'll be a shoe-in next year!

 

While the show is inspired by the 1996 Cohen Brothers gem, it is not a direct remake. Each season tells a gruesome story of murderous rampages that allegedly occurred in the great white northern regions of the United States during different periods of time. The first season featured Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton and was set in the recent past of 2006. The season revolved around Freeman's character attempting to cover up the murder of his wife with the expert help of trained killer Thornton. Listening to Freeman attempt first an American accent and then a North Dakota accent was supremely entertaining.

Season two was set in the 1970s in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and features Kirsten Dunst as a somewhat off-kilter hairdresser with big dreams and big delusions and her husband, a butcher with humble dreams played by Jesse Plemons. When Dunst accidentally hits a man with her car on his way out of a murder scene, she decides that the only sensible thing to do is to drive all the way home with the man lodged in her windshield and do everything in her power to cover the whole thing up and pretend it never happened. This one small act of stupidity puts her and her husband in the middle of a bloody turf war between two rival gang families. 

Dunst's character Peggy uses her tenacity and stubborn desire to become her most actualized self to convince herself that this whole funny business with the murders is actually a positive step for her and her husband and it will break them out of their rut! Meanwhile, poor Ed (Plemons) just wants to save enough money to buy the butcher shop he's been working for but somehow gets roped into all of his wife's ridiculous schemes. 

This show is fast-paced, extremely multi-layered and keeps you on the edge of your seat from week to week. The characters are real and heart-felt and, since this show has an extremely high body count, it tugs at your heart every time one is gunned down. (Actually I'd like to see a body count comparison between a single season of "Game of Thrones," and a single season of "Fargo.") There is a hint of wtf? to the show but you'll have to watch to get that little tidbit. 

So now I have a year to eat Ho-Ho's, get a Farrah Fawcett blowout and practice my Minnesota accent to prefect my Peggy costume just before season 3 begins.

 

Week 7, Check-In

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Have you used them to think about creative luxury for you? How has the experience been for you?
All of them! Hooray me! Mostly I've used the pages like a friend over coffee which is useful since I can't remember the last time I successful went out for hot beverages with a friend. It's a calming exercise.

2. Did you do your artist date this week? What did you do? How did it feel?
I did not. I didn't even make it to the gym this week.

3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week? What was it?
The sketch book and pencils are staring me down. I will have time during my baking tomorrow.

4. Were there any other issues this week that you consider significant to your recover?
I realized that I think this book is intended to be gone through during warm weather. It's hard to do the outdoorsy stuff when it has been raining for two weeks straight.

The Good Dinosaur

My mother's one request for the weekend of Thanksgiving was that the four of us (me, my husband, Mom, and Dad) all go together to see Pixar's newest film, "The Good Dinosaur." My mom is a self-proclaimed Disney fanatic and I... was raised by her so yeah, some of it rubbed off. I have always been endlessly impressed by Pixar's contribution to cinema and of course I was overjoyed that we got two Pixar movies this year for the first time ever!

"The Good Dinosaur," is about a world in which the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs actually missed allowing the prehistoric creatures to live for millions of years after they normally would have. With this longer planetary lifespan, the dinosaurs developed and advanced much the way humans do. The herbivores learn how to cultivate farms, the carnivores become ranchers, and the carrion birds become bizarre cult following crazies. It's a cute concept that was executed well however, the story beyond that is not especially original or groundbreaking. The runt in a family of Brontosauruses is struggling to prove his abilities and his worth to earn a place of honor within his family. Through the trials of this struggle, his father is killed and he is flung far away from his family's homestead. He befriends a pet-like humanoid creature and together they attempt to make their way home again.

The most extraordinary thing about this movie is the animated scenery. It is beyond gorgeous. It is precisely animated to the point of photo-realism. The mountain ranges, rivers, and trees are all just stunningly beautiful, it is unfortunately that it is the backdrop for such a mediocre movie.

My suggestion is to wait until it comes out on bluray and then watch it so you can see how incredibly far Pixar has come since that first Toy Story movie which had both feet firmly planted in uncanny valley.

Week 7 Writing Prompts

1. Find five pretty or interesting rocks.They can be small, constant reminders of your creative consciousness.
2. Pick five flowers or leaves. You may want to press them between wax paper and save them in a book.
It's too wet outside for this activity. 
 3. Throw out or give away five ratty pieces of clothing.
4. Bake something. Creativity doesn't always have a capital-A art. The act of cooking something can help you cook something up in another creative mode.
There will be so much baking done on Saturday! I'm looking forward to the smell of eggnog cake.
5. Send postcards to five friends.
6. Any new changes in your home environment? Make some!
We have a Christmas tree! And I have gotten all of the holiday decorations out.
7. Any new flow in your life? Say yes to freebies!
Saturday I get to work a phone drive with artsy people, do a bunch of baking, and have friends over for the annual Trucker Parade. Hopefully it won't rain.
8. Any change in your financial situation or your perspective on it? Any new ideas about what you would love doing?
I'm still planning to do some job hunting in January. For now, I am fine with the way things are. I still have the option to sell all my Polly Pockets.

Week 7, Money Madness, An Exercise

1. People with money are privileged.
2. Money makes people forgetful.
3. I'd have more money if I got regular work again.
4. My Dad thought money was to be saved for vacation.
5. My mom always thought money would keep her from getting bored with herself.
6. In my family, money caused joy because we were fervent savers and spent on long vacations.
7. Money equals comfort.
8. If I had money, I'd save it.
9. If I could afford it, I'd travel Europe.
10. If I had some money, I'd buy some new clothes.
11. I'm afraid that if I had money I 'd spend it frivolously.
12. Money is a necessary evil.
13. Money causes some people to forget how others live.
14. Having money is not necessarily the main goal.
15. In order to have more money, I'd need to get a job.
16. When I have money, I am usually pretty good about not over-spending.
17. I think money gets a bad rap.
18. If I weren't so cheap I'd probably be broke constantly.
19. People think money is the answer to everything.
20. Being broke tells me that there's something better out there for me.

Week 6, Check In

1. How many days this week did you do your morning pages? Are you starting to like them? How was the experience for you?
Well this was a weird one because this "week" was actually two weeks because of Thanksgiving. I didn't write Wednesday - Sunday and I didn't write this Friday - Sunday. Thanksgiving ate my brain and I was kind of exhausted. I am enjoying the morning pages but I just... didn't do them as much as I should have. I am being forgiving with myself and accepting that this is a reasonable time to not be on program. I know this will happen again with Christmas and when we go to Vegas in January.

2. Did you do your artist date this week? Have you had the experience of hearing answers during this leisure time? What did you do for your date? How did it feel? Have you taken an artist date yet that really felt adventurous?
I did! I went to the zoo with my parents. I spent a lot of time with the Red Pandas and my parents were very encouraging about the children's book about Masala. My artist dates have not been terribly adventurous. They're all around town and by myself. There really isn't anything I could do that would be super adventurous by myself here.

3. Did you experience any synchronicity this week?
I got a lot of encouragement about the Masala project. Some of it in the form of, "Yes you should do it!" others in the form of, "Why haven't you done this yet? DO IT ALREADY!"

4. Were there any other issues this week that you considered significant to your recovery?
I have to accept that holidays happen.

Week 6 Writing Prompts

1. The reason I can't really believe in a supportive God is... (list 5 reasons).
- That would require a belief in god. Full stop.
- Good things come to those who work hard.
- I believe I am responsible for all things in my life.
- It is nerve-wracking to think I'm not in control of my own destiny.
- It just seems too convenient of an excuse for those who are active writers to dismiss their success.

2. If I had either faith or money I would try... (list 5 desires).
- Self publishing.
- Writing a food themed travel guide.
- Spend a year in Europe.
-  Write a series of children's books.
- Write a cookbook.

3. List five imaginary lives.
- I am a cook book writer. I start as food blogger and from my blog am offered a book deal. My food is in thousands of homes.
- I am a jazz vocalist with a small following. I tour the US and people will gladly put me up on their couches and in their guest rooms.
- I am a baker and I get to bake love into my cookies every day.
- I am a wedding planner who helps brides keep calm and collected and have the best wedding day possible.
- I am a traveling poet. I take my typewriter on the road and earn a living with my words.

4. If you were twenty and had money... List five adventures.
- I'd backpack my way across Europe staying in hostels and couch surfing.
- I'd spend five years living in different cities for six months to a year each.
- I'd work with some sort of performance art troop.
- I'd live alone and dedicate my time to writing a book.
- I'd become a party planner and become the biggest version of myself.

5. If you were sixty-five and had money... List 5 postponed pleasures.
I'd live in a cabin in the woods.
I'd travel Europe and do lots of fancy things.
I'd become a museum docent at the Smithsonian.
I'd become a gentle yoga instructor.
I'd open my own library.

6. Ten ways I am mean to myself are...
I second-guess my decisions.
I tell myself I'm not especially good at anything.
I don't let myself try for fear of failure.
I assume if I do well, it is because someone better just forgot to show.
I talk myself out of wanting things.

7. Ten items I would like to own that I don't are...
1. To own our own home

2. For our home to have a big front porch.

3. And this kitchen.

4. This bathtub.

5. This library.

6. And a room these colors.

7. I'd like this watch which shows the planetary alignment.

8.

9.

10.

8. Honestly, my favorite creative block is...
Overreading! I've read 75 books this year.

9. My payoff for staying blocked is...
I've read 75 books sounds a whole lot more impressive than I started writing a little.

10. The person I blame for being blocked is...
Myself.