Monday, August 24, 2009

HOT : Watch Wyvern Movie Online Streaming


Wyvern Movie is 2009 movie produced by RHI Entertainment that released on August 18, 2009. A wyvern is a cunning dragon of Nordic mythology. Here is Wyvern movie synopsis and the links to watch this movie online streaming:
The small Alaskan town of Beaver Mills is located just north of the Arctic Circle, meaning that the sun doesn’t set during the summer solstice. As the town prepares for its annual celebration of this event, a wyvern, awakened from its prison of ice by the melting of the ice caps, appears, attacking the town’s residents. It continues its bloody rampage as the humans in town desperately try to escape. Eventually, the townfolk find that the creature has laid a nest of eggs. The Wyvern’s reign of terror is finally ended when Jake runs it off a cliff with his new semi–truck
Watch Wyvern Movie Online Streaming


HOT : True Blood "New World in My View" delivers entertainment at new heights


For a vampire-themed show, the latest episode of “True Blood” is as far from vampire lore as the show has ever gotten. With the Dallas storyline out of the way, the cast of “True Blood” finally confronts the terror that is Maryann, with some very interesting results.
I have to say, I love villains. They bring a layer of complexity to a story that always makes the story as a whole more interesting to watch. Maryann is a very original and unique take on the portrayal of villains. She is unabashedly single-minded. She has no dysfunctional past that scarred her innocence, nor does she house some neurological handicap (well, one assumes). She is, plain and simple, someone whose sole purpose is to cause carnage and chaos.
As Sookie, Bill and Jason return to Bon Temp, it becomes clear that Maryann’s presence has completely mutated the town. In terms of production value and set design, the episode is by far the most complex, extravagant and immersive experience one can find on television right now. One look at Sookie’s transformed residence and it becomes clear that the show’s immense success also means a much larger budget. While it is out of form for me, I have to compliment the production team for the effort, because it shows.
While most of the season has kept the vampire, maenad and telepathic mythology separated, this episode brings Sookie, Bill and Maryann face to face. Ironically, Bill becomes the damsel in distress for much of the episode, as it becomes all too clear vampire fangs are more or less useless against Maryann. Sookie, on the other hand, reveals additional powers against the maenad. With the combined power of Bill and Sookie, Tara also recovers from her trance.  The development is surprising, and I hope it leads to more revelation regarding the origin of her power.  Sidenote: watch out for some delicious Lafayette bitch-out moments.
“True Blood” also offer another surprise in that it can be very funny. It is a bit awkward to see fantasy/horror mixed with comedy, but the Sam/Andy/Jason storyline is perhaps one of the most animated and comical storyline we’ve seen on the show. It shows that when appropriate, “True Blood” doesn’t take itself too seriously. Although Sam remains unchanged much of the season, it is nice to see Andy and Jason’s character development shine in the episode.
What little vampire lore the episode provides, it does so with flare and allure. The end of the episode finds Bill seeking out the Louisiana vampire queen. Again, the set is awe-inspiring and looks like something out of a gothic Lolita fairytale. The show takes its time revealing mythology and the episode shows exactly why it pays off. Just with the shot of a foot, the episode leaves viewers cringing for more.
This episode seems to personify Maryann: over the top, loud, extravagant and fun. True, the campiness does take away from the tension, but it’s a nice example of the versatility “True Blood” has instilled within the confines of the show.

New : Child Dies After Wave Swept Her, Others To Sea

http://www.alwahshnt.net
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, Maine --The Coast Guard said a 7-year-old girl has died after a large wave stirred up by Hurricane Bill swept her and two others off a rocky ledge at Acadia National Park in Maine.
Click Here For Photos
Steve McCausland of the Maine Public Safety Department said the girl's name isn't being released but that she was from New York state. The girl was one of three people plucked from the water by rescuers. The other two were a man and a 12-year-old girl who were hospitalized.
The Coast Guard said the girl was unresponsive when she was rescued.
The National Hurricane Center said the center of the hurricane was about 230 miles west of Newfoundland on Sunday night.
Stay with News 8 and WMTW.com for updates on this developing story.

Hot :Ravens LB Tony Fein arrested, charged with assaulting police officer

http://www.alwahshnt.net
Police in Baltimore arrested Ravens rookie linebacker Tony Feinand charged him with assaulting a police officer in an incident on Sunday.

The Baltimore Sun reported that Fein allegedly pushed a police officer in Baltimore's Inner Harbor when police responded to an incident at a local restaurant. They were investigating a report of a group of men passing around an object that looked like a weapon.

Fein allegedly did not respond to police officers' directive for him to stand.  The Sun reported that no gun was found, and the object turned out to be a cell phone.

Ravens spokesman Kevin Byrne issued a statement supporting Fein on Sunday night.

"Like all citizens, Tony will get his due process and have his opportunity to explain," Byrne said. "There are two sides to every story."

Fein, 27, joined the Ravens as a free agent after going undrafted. He is a former marine who served as a recon scout in Iraq.

Of his responsibilities as a recon scout, he told the Sun:

"You're out there assessing what the enemy has, the capabilities, the numbers and stuff like that. Football gets tough, with the heat and physical demands. But at least I know I'm going to be alive today. And tomorrow."

source : http://blogs.usatoday.com/thehuddle/2009/08/ravens-lb-tony-fein-arrested-charged-with-assaulting-police-officer.html

Jay-Z and Beyonce's paparazzi battle


Jay-Z and Beyonce were involved in a tussle in Croatia on Tuesday night, after the paparazzi caught them enjoying a romantic night out.
A gang of photographers snappers spotted the couple leaving a restaurant and began furiously snapping them.
When the pair's bodyguard tried to stop the paparazzi from taking pictures, the snappers fought back, grappling with the minder.
One photographer threw his tripod at the bouncer, who turned and tossed it into the sea.
Jay-Z and Beyonce, who are vacationing on the Adriatic coast, escaped unharmed in a speed boat; the rapper turning to give the paparazzi a single-finger salute before the pair disappeared into the night.

Roundtable #39 – WWE? TNA? What is the worst wrestling PPV of all time?


http://www.alwahshnt.net
Welcome to the latest Roundtable discussion here at iFight365.com where this week we ask: Given the atrocious Victory Road PPV that TNA recently presented us with, what is the worst PPV of all time?
James Mustoe: To me that would have to be ECW’s December to Dismember in 2006. This was a truly atrocious card with no matches announced bar the main event prior to a week before the show. All of the undercard matches were pretty much actively bad, bar the opening match of MNM vs. Hardy’s (a RAW team vs. a Smackdown team). The main event itself, a ‘hardcore’ Elimination Chamber match, was brutal in that (i) the concept of the match was a WWE idea, (ii) Test and Bob Holly were in it, (iii) Advertised participant and ECW legend Sabu was removed with no prior warning on the PPV and replaced with the aforementioned Holly, (iv) the match was designed to showcase the green and not over Bobby Lashley, (v) The most popular guy in the match, RVD, was eliminated first, and finally (vi) defending champion Big Show was totally knackered and virtually immobile. Not a good combination for the match you’re hoping to sell a PPV on. Add to this Paul Heyman’s last WWE appearance in a noticeably pissed off promo, and a very short running time and you have a true disaster of a show.
Mark Bright: This was a difficult question to answer, for a few reasons. Firstly, there are some terrible PPVs that are saved by shining lights of greatness. WrestleMania 13 was an awful show, besides having arguably the greatest match of all time on there. Great American Bash 2004 had a run of midcard matches in Luther Reigns vs. Charlie Haas, Sable vs. Torrie Wilson, Kenzo Suzuki vs. Billy Gunn and Mordecai vs. Hardcore Holly, plus a main event of Undertaker murdering Paul Bearer, all of which was completely shit, but JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero were both excellent, and different, matches that make for a memorable PPVs.
Another reason is that WCW and ECW PPVs were never shown over here in the UK and therefore the worst of their shows I’ve never seen, both from the dying years and also the infamous WCW 1991 Great American Bash “Flair Protest Show.” I’ve also never seen Heroes Of Wrestling, which tends to come up a lot as an answer to this question.
TNA’s Victory Road from last month is a contender as none of the matches I’d rank above ** and one, the infamous Jenna Morasca vs. Sharmell T match, is way into the negative star territory, but TNA is a joke of a company who have had several awful PPVs which would be a contender for this.
But my choice is from December 2006, ECW December To Dismember. This show being bad stands out because, of the three WWE-ran ECW PPVs, the other two are two of the most memorable PPVs of the decade. This show was a complete disaster. It did 90,000 buys, which is by far the lowest for any WWE PPVs. It killed the idea of ECW having separate brand PPVs to the point that it’s never been tried again. There were only two matches announced before the show, the opener between MNM and The Hardy Boyz, and the ECW Title Elimination Chamber match. But even that got changed the day of the show, as Sabu was taken out in a backstage segment during the show, to be replaced by Bob Holly. Then the match sucked, mainly because they got rid of popular babyfaces CM Punk and Rob Van Dam quickly, leaving WWE’s overpushed pet project Bobby Lashley to run through Test and The Big Show to win the title and close the PPVs. Seriously, Bobby Lashley, Test, and The Big Show as the last three in an Elimination Chamber was the main event closing scene of a PPVs.
Oh, and if anyone bought the PPV for the two announced matches and was expecting the card to be filled out with a watchable midcard, they were dead wrong. Instead, they got Balls Mahoney vs. Matt Striker in a match that fucking sucked. They got Daivari, managed by The Great Khali vs. Tommy Dreamer in a match that fucking sucked when I had the misfortune of seeing it live the week before this PPV and sucked on this PPV as well. Elijah Burke and Sylvester Terkay beat Tony Mamaluke and Little Guido in a match that not only sucked but saw Burke win with Jeff Jarrett’s finisher followed by Terkay hitting Samoa Joe’s finisher post-match, which lead to the whole crowd chanting TNA, the only time I can remember it happening on a WWE show. They also got Kelly Kelly and Mike Knox losing to Ariel and Kevin Thorn in a terrible mixed tag match. Oh, and the PPV only lasted around 2 hours and 15 minutes. So not only did they provide a shitty product, they provided a criminally short shitty product so fans felt ripped off in two different ways. Truly the worst PPV of all time.
Daniel Short: TNA Victory Road 2009 will certainly go down in history as one of the most terrible wrestling pay-per-view shows ever. As for the worst of all-time, it might be possible. However, one show comes to mind that immediately trumps it. A wrestling pay-per-view show so horrible that it is never looked upon in a positive light: Heroes of Wrestling.
In a misconceived attempt to capitalize on the success of professional wrestling taking place in 1999, Bill Stone and Fosstone Productions wanted to put together a series of nostalgic-based wrestling shows of superstars from the 80’s and early 90’s. And man did the first show perform badly. Just about everything on the show was brutally bad, from the in-ring action to the announcing by Randy Rosenbloom, who was replacing a sick Gordon Solie. The only decent thing that happened on the show was the Too Cold Scorpio versus Julio Fantastico match, but even then they couldn’t make the show any better.
The show is quite infamous for two matches, the first being The Bushwhackers versus Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik. Boy oh boy oh boy was this just bad. Sheik and Volkoff could barely move as it was and usual Bushwhacker fare was about as bad as one would remember. Nothing went right with this one.
And then came the main event. From the get-go, it was a disaster. Jake “The Snake” Roberts came out and was supposed to cut a promo on his opponent Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. As soon as he appeared, all could see that he appeared heavily intoxicated and very much under the influence of something. He slurred his way through the interview and then barely managed to get into the ring where he used the snake to visually illustrate masturbation before apparently passing out.
What attempt did the promoters do to salvage the match? Having King Kong Bundy and Yokozuna, whose own match was cut, added to make the match a tag team affair with Bundy teaming with Neidhart and Yoko teaming with Jake. Yoko looked so much heavier than he was when last seen and the slow nature of everyone in the ring was nothing short of a train wreck. The kind that made you want to run away in horror.
As bad as TNA Victory Road 2009 was, and could easily be ranked among the worst pay-per-views of all-time, I don’t think it is the worst of all. Not when a show like Heroes of Wrestling is forever remembered with great infamy.
Michael Campbell: There have been many Pay Per View offerings over the years, from all quarters, that have proven to be less than worthwhile. From the lofty minds of overly ambitious regional promoters, to the biggest stage imaginable in Vince McMahon’s playground, to the bingo halls of ECW, and Time Warner’s check-book, we’ve seen it all. WCW supplied us an endless torrent of garbage at the beginning of the Nineties, which was only made watchable, by the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Steve Austin, Sting, Rick Rude, and Vader. Often, even some of the better talent were placed in ludicrous gimmick scenarios that seriously handicapped their appeal. In its latter days. The promotion once again reverted to obscene levels of abhorrence, piling hilariously inept booking upon insane stipulations that drove fans away in their thousands.
Since its creation, TNA has produced many a turd for us to purge our innards of. Combining rancid burials of its younger, more interesting talent, and retarded gimmicks, Victory Road 2009 is the absolute pinnacle of this, with a platter of dull, repetitive undercard material, a lousy waste of its top talents, and one of the worst excuses for a wrestling bout that I’ve ever had the misfortune of witnessing (Tara vs. Jenna Morasca). I essentially gave up hope though for TNA following an even worse card they promoted a few months back. One so bad, this is what I said… “Destination X was a fucking pile of abandoned fucking dog nards”. Yes, that’s not a good thing. But let’s not even mention their risible brand of localised “entertainment” that they spurted forth back in their early days – weekly pieces of crusty toe-jam. Yuck.
I figured though, I’d choose a show that scraped the barrel of and emerged from the biggest company with the most resources, and least possible excuses for delivering so little. That’s right, the WWE.
There is no excuse for Vince McMahon’s group to ever deliver a show of the abysmal standard that was, say, the 2006 edition of Armageddon. Playing host to a scintillating ladder match, the remainder of the card was complete nards. They have more cash than anyone else, more experience, and a massive roster. Shows like that, which fans are asked to pay for, simply should not exist. For other examples, look no further than countless Brand-exclusive PPVs, largely from Smackdown that provoked almost unanimous misery. Looking back, this is how I’ve judged some of their worst efforts over the years…
Armageddon 2004
“Don’t ever watch this, and if you already have done, my deepest sympathies.”
WrestleMania I
“A much respected show, and obviously worth seeing, because of the scale of the entire enterprise, and the enormous historical importance behind it. But Jesus, the wrestling on this show is abysmal.”
Unforgiven 2007
“Unforgiven 07 didn’t rise from the toilet bowl that Summerslam was born into; instead it promptly nestled down beside it as the latest piece of crud that Vinnie is peddling as ‘wrestling’.”

WrestleMania XI
“Nothing to see here folks, move along.”
It’s perhaps fair to say though, that no PPV in recent times was as woeful as the 2006 stinker, December to Dismember- an appalling collection of garbage. Further back though, wasn’t necessarily happier times. Several ‘In Your House’ cards were appalling throughout 1995 and 1996, particularly any of those headlined by Sid or Diesel. King of the Ring 1995 was a catastrophic shart-heap, while even WrestleMania was tarnished by truly nauseating efforts in 1995 and 1997. Further back through time, The 1991 Survivor Series, and the first two WrestleMania’s, were utterly rancid beasts.
But my choice, one that may surprise some, is Armageddon 1999. Coming in the midst of a hot period for Stamford, this should have been an easy card to put together. But they somehow managed to cock it up royally. Famously, this show was headlined by Triple H versus Vince McMahon. Yup, months after briefly booking himself as the World Champion, Vince decreed that he was capable of pulling in the viewers and giving them a compelling main event. He wasn’t. The collision is remembered for the post-match angle that saw his daughter, Stephanie, turn on him and align with HHH. It was the beginning of a superb run for the duo. But the match itself was a tedious bore, bereft of crowd heat. Vince was half the performer in ‘99 that he was by the time he locked up with Hulk Hogan in 2003.
Even more devoid of crowd interest, was the bum-numbing World title bout between The Big Show, and The Big Boss Man. It was worse than you might imagine and an indication of horrible priorities.
Elsewhere, stuck going through the motions, The Rock was wasted in a tag effort, pairing him with an overweight Mick Foley against the past-it New Age Outlaws. Chris Jericho was in the midst of a feud with Chyna that was as good as you were ever likely to get with her. Meanwhile, we were treated to a terrible “super heavyweight” clash between The Holly’s, and Rikishi and Viscera. There’s a dream team. X-Pac’s useless storyline with Kane continued, in a rubbish Cage match that went only eight minutes, while Kurt Angle’s bout with Steve Blackman was an okay early entry for the Olympian, but hardly a show-saver. That other staple of crapness, the Battle Royal, was pulled out of the bag, while the best bout effort was arguably a triple threat between Val Venis, D’Lo Brown, and Davey Boy Smith. Yep, that’s D’Lo post-storylines and effort from creative, Val, six months too far entrenched in his gimmick, and Smith, deep in a tragic, and irreparable, self-inflicted haze of a condition.
Triple H was about to begin a white-hot run as the company’s top heel, The Rock was a massive babyface, Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho had just joined the team, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were about to, and The Undertaker was due to return. Yet somehow, this 170 minutes of rasslin’ was a complete quagmire of ineptitude. You know you’re in trouble when your event is most remembered for a Four Corners Evening Gown in a Pool match. Yup, that’s how crappy Armageddon 1999 was.

New : Fresca Soda one of LBJ's favorite drinks on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire


http://www.alwahshnt.net
LBJ had four buttons for his favorite drinks installed in the Oval Office labeled coffee, tea, Coke and Fresca. Ken Basin from Los Angeles, CA, answered the question wrong on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
The complete Who Wants to Be a Millionairequestion on August 23, 2009 was, “For ordering his favorite beverages on demand, LBJ had four buttons installed in the Oval Office labeled “coffee,” “tea,” “Coke” and what? A. Fresca, B. V8, C. Yoo-hoo, D. A&W” Basin answered Yoo Hoo which was wrong, and lost the $1,000,000 prize money.
LBJ Four Buttons
Lyndon B Johnson had four favorite drinks, Fresca was one of them. The others were coffee, tea and Coke. According to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, LBJ had four buttons installed in the Oval Office. Imagine having a gizmo with buttons for your favorite drinks? All it takes is a push of the button and a drink appears! What a life!  
Soda and Drink Recipes
So, how do these sodas relate to the Food & Drink world? Fresca, Yoo Hoo, V8 Juice and A&W Root Beer all have recipes for you to try. Some are classic old-fashioned recipes from the 50's, others are Copycat recipes you can make at home. There's even an awesome Fresca Cake with Maraschino Icing!
Recipes Using Fresca Soda
Gin & Fresca
  • 1 ounce gin
  • 1 ounce Fresca
  • Serve on the rocks.
  • Chocolate Banana
  • Chocolate Strawberry
  • Chocolate Mint

New :TMZ removes Jasmine Fiore death photo while RCMP eye Ryan Jenkins


http://www.alwahshnt.net
After posting a photo of what was allegedly the dead body of model Jasmine Fiore, TMZ was flooded with negative responses, even though the picture was grainy and almost impossible to make out. As of now, the celebrity gossip site has removed the picture.
The former Las Vegas model’s naked body was found stuffed into a suitcase in a Buena Park, CA, Dumpster on August 15. At the time, the body was flagged as a Jane Doe due to lack of identification. Since her teeth and fingers had been removed, it was only after tracing the serial number on her breast implants that a positive identification was made the following Tuesday.
The police are currently looking for Fiore’s husband, former reality TV contestant Ryan Jenkins. A native Canadian, Jenkins disappeared from the couple’s Los Angeles home shortly after reporting his wife missing.
News reports were flying yesterday that Jenkins had been caught at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, but it turned out to be someone who only looked like the 32-year-old Jenkins. However,News1130.com reports that sources from the RCMP confirm Jenkins is in Canada at this time, somewhere north of the 49th.

New : Megan Wants a Millionaire | ryan jenkins wikipedia

http://www.alwahshnt.net

ryan jenkins  | megan wants a millionaire | i love money 3 | ryan jenkins megan wants a millionaire | ryan jenkins wikipedia
ryan jenkins i love money | ryan jenkins | megan wants a millionaire | i love money 3 | jasmine fiore | ryan jenkins megan wants a millionaire
The feds have launched a massive man hunt for Ryan Jenkins from VH1’s reality show’s I love Money and Megan Wants a Millionaire.
VH1’s newest reality show, Megan Wants a Millionaire, is being cancelled or at least postponed for awhile.
The reason the show is being cancelled is because contestant, Ryan Alexander, is going to jail. He is one of the main suspects in the murder of a swimsuit model.
Swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore was married to Alexander and was found dead, stuffed in a suit case.
Alexander has a history of violence and assaulted Fiore back in June. He also assaulted a previous girlfriend in 2005.
Some people are even saying that Megan has picked Ryan as her millionaire.

Hot : The Wire, Season 2, Episode 11: "Bad Dreams" (Newbies edition)

http://www.alwahshnt.net
Almost to the finish line on "The Wire" season two, folks. As always, we're going to look back in two slightly different versions: one for the people who are watching the show at roughly the same pace I'm writing about it and don't want to be spoiled on what comes down the road, and one for people who have watched the entire series and want to be able to talk about all of it. This is the newbie version; click here for the veteran edition.
Spoilers for "Bad Dreams" coming up just as soon as you get me two hot dogs and a strawberry soda... 

Almost to the finish line on "The Wire" season two, folks. As always, we're going to look back in two slightly different versions: one for the people who are watching the show at roughly the same pace I'm writing about it and don't want to be spoiled on what comes down the road, and one for people who have watched the entire series and want to be able to talk about all of it. This is the newbie version; click here for the veteran edition.
Spoilers for "Bad Dreams" coming up just as soon as you get me two hot dogs and a strawberry soda...
"You know what the trouble is, Brucie? We used to make s--t in this country. Build s--t. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket." -Frank Sobotka
When we get to this point of each season of "The Wire," I tend to rail a lot against the screenwriting crimes committed by George Pelecanos. In season one, he killed off Wallace. Here, he sends Frank Sobotka walking to his apparent doom. In later seasons... well, you veterans are probably already cringing in memory of what Pelecanos did to your favorites.
But it's reductive to single out these penultimate/Pelecanos episodes just because they often (but not always) feature the deaths of beloved characters. Yes, the deaths hit, and they hit hard, but all the non-lethal parts of them hit nearly as hard. This is the point in each season where things that had often seemed like intellectual abstractions start to take on emotional heft - when you see how much misplaced faith Nick has put into his relationship with Vondas, when you see Beadie smile at a job well done in tailing Vondas to his hotel room, when Frank nails Bruce and the state of the American industrial economy to the wall with the line I quoted above.
David Simon likes to compare each season of "The Wire" to a novel, and Pelecanos' episodes always have the sensation of reading the last 70 or 80 pages of a really good thriller - one like, say Pelecanos' own "The Turnaround" or "The Sweet Forever." What may have taken a long time to read in the early going now flies by. You know the players, the conflicts, the stakes, and now you just want to see what happens next, and whether people come to the end you want for them or not(*). So some of the power of these episodes tends to come from their position in the season, but it also comes from the fact that Pelecanos is really, really good at this. Simon has said that in season one, several of the big moments that wound up in Pelecanos' "Cleaning Up" were originally going to be in the Simon-written finale, but George's take on them was so strong that Simon let him handle it.
(*) What's funny is that, for all the talk - including by me - about how Pelecanos and Simon are such kindred literary spirits, his books on average tend to be more optimistic than "The Wire." They're operating on a much smaller scale than what the show is doing - "Drama City," for instance, is what a season of "The Wire" would be like if it were only about Cutty - and not everyone's story turns out as well as they deserve, but the success rate is generally higher, and the overt bad guys (as opposed to the systemic problems) tend to get bumped off in the end. Pelecanos is always much more brutal to Simon's characters than he allows himself to be to his own.
Obviously, the killer sequence here comes at the very end, as Frank's fate is irrevocably changed during the long walk from his truck to where The Greek and Vondas are standing. It's a testament to how well the series has trained its audience that Pelecanos' script and Ernest Dickerson's direction can mine so much tension from a point of view montage of a fax being sent, transferred by mail cart to a secretary, and entered into a computer.
There are shows that try to get a lot of mileage out of springing surprises on their audience - only giving them a small part of the story so their minds can be blown when they find out the whole truth. "The Wire" rarely operates that way. Like the Greek dramas Simon likes to talk about, it tends to lay out everything that's going to happen well before it happens. It doesn't cheat, doesn't hide. It turns you into an omniscient observer of this world, and then it drives you crazy because you know how badly things are going to go, and when you see characters who don't know as much as you do. There are so many moments in "Bad Dreams" alone where I wanted to scream (or have screamed) at the screen, trying to warn characters about fates that in my head I know are unavoidable.
I want to tell Omar not to trust Stringer. I want to scream for Kima to pay attention to the old man in the sweater walking past her in the parking garage. I want to tell Ronnie to not let Sobotka leave the detail office under any circumstance, even if that would require Herc and Carver to entertain him with a song-and-dance number while they waited for Frank's lawyer to show up. And you know I shouted like hell the first time I saw Frank walk toward The Greek, even as I knew the info in Fitz's fax was slowly, inexorably making its way to Agent Koutris' computer.
But it's a TV show, not an interactive experience. Ronnie can't hear me any more than Stan Valchek can listen to reason, and so Frank walks out of the detail office and into the hands of a couple of ruthless international gangsters.
Dammit.
I like that even in this episode, even as Frank is being set up for what looks like a permanent fall, the show allows him the depth that marks him as one of the more complicated characters in the show's history. As Rafael Alvarez said in his comments about "Backwash," "Frank Sobotka was a very smart man who often mistook his heart for his brain." And so the show is allowed to admire Frank's ends - as it does when he puts in a hard day's work in place of Little Big Roy, and as it does when he gives Bruce a piece of his mind - even as Louis Sobotka is invited to cut right through all of Frank's self-rationalizations, and to tell him that trying to save the union doesn't justify turning Louis' son into a drug dealer. (Imagine how angry Louis would be if he knew about the role his brother played in the deaths of the Jane Does.)
An incredible performance throughout the hour, and the season, by Chris Bauer as Sobotka. He's gotten more post-"Wire" work (including his current stint on "True Blood") than someone like Larry Gilliard, but none of those parts have been as rich, as complicated, or as compelling as Frank.
As we did at this point in season one, we see the case coming together, but not as strongly as it should be. Ziggy not only killed off Double-G, he gave The Greek advance warning to clean out both the warehouse and electronics store - the latter because Jay Landsman was too tunnel-visioned to alert Lt. Daniels, or secure the scene, or do anything that might have led the detail closer to those 14 open murders. (To Landsman's credit, he at least recognizes how badly he screwed the pooch, where he wasn't quite as remorseful when he failed to alert Jimmy about a Barksdale-connected murder in season one.) They had Frank in the office, ready and willing to cooperate, but they let him go because Ronnie wasn't stubborn enough to tell Frank to call a lawyer then and there. And thus far, the only person in custody who seems willing to talk is White Mike, who probably wouldn't recognize The Greek any more than Kima did.
It'd be enough to make you cry... if, that is, "The Wire" hadn't already told you that tears won't be enough.
Some other thoughts on "Bad Dreams":
• The other major story of the episode pits our two larger-than-life bad-asses against each other, as Omar buys into Stringer's story and goes after Brother Mouzone, only to realize that the gut-shot man calmly praying to his deity couldn't possibly be the same one who tortured and mutilated Brandon. Though if Omar is savvy enough to see this, why would he believe Stringer in the first place? Butchie could smell something off about things when Joe approached him in the previous episode, and it's not like Stringer didn't have a previous face-to-face opportunity to share this information with Omar.
• The HBO.com recap of this episode takes a literal reading of Ziggy's line about how "the same blood don't flow for us, pop" and suggests that Ziggy is letting Frank know that he knows they're not biological father and son. But there have been enough mistakes in various recaps on that site over the years (on this show and on "The Sopranos") that I don't take them as gospel, and I always viewed that as a metaphor; Frank is Ziggy's father, but Ziggy inherited none of his father's abilities or temperament. Either way, a haunting scene from both Bauer and James Ransone, particularly when Frank has to watch his son walk back into the holding pen and realizes he can't protect the kid anymore from the awful fate he's trapped in. (And it's a fate that Frank set up, by putting Ziggy's cousin and best friend in business with The Greek in the first place.)
• Though nobody on the detail recognizes The Greek (they assume the man in the fancy suit must be the boss), it's still a pleasure to watch Beadie successfully tail Vondas - and, almost as importantly, to see that Bunk and the others trust her to do it. As The Bunk says, she has come a really long way from the clock-puncher we met at the start of the season.
• While The Greek seems to be utterly without emotional attachments (making him more like Stringer), it's interesting to see that number two man Vondas is (like Avon) capable of letting business be complicated by his affection for certain underlings, in this case through his odd surrogate father relationship with Nick.
• Don't blink or you'll miss David Simon as one of the reporters out for Sobotka's perp walk. He's the one shouting out, "Is it just you or is it the whole union?"
• Even amid the tragedy of this one, we get some good nickname-related humor, including Sergei lamenting, "Why always Boris?" and more wacky stevedore nicknames like Big Roy (a small guy) and Little Big Roy (a huge guy).
Coming up next: The season comes to an end with "Port in a Storm," as the detail tries to put a charge on Vondas and The Greek, while Stringer has to deal with the mess he made with Brother Mouzone.
In theory, you'll see that review a week from today. But, as mentioned in several other posts this week, I'm going to be taking some vacation days next week (and will be away for all of the following week), so no promises. Worst comes to worst, you'll get it sometime during that week after Labor Day, when I'll be back at work full-time.
What did everybody else think?
Source : http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/08/the_wire_season_2_episode_11_b_1.html