Category Archives: TV

TV

The Great British Baking Show… Something Irritating

I’m going to get really deep into the weeds here so if you have no interest at all in The Great British Baking Show, scroll on to another post and find something more interesting.

Further, if you are a fan of the show (like me!) and don’t want to have the latest episode, which aired last Friday on Netflix, SPOILED, then avert your eyes, watch the show and catch up, then read on.

All right then, you’ve been warned.

To being, I love the damn show. Unlike the American/Food Network shows that feature chefs competing against each other -and there are so many of them!- The Great British Baking Show is generally pleasant and deceptively placid. Deceptively because there is tension beneath the surface but it is like watching, of all things, professional golf: The contestants are truly competing with themselves to do the best they can. They have no control over what the others do so their struggle ultimately is with themselves.

Yes, the same thing happens in the American shows but there always seems to be a more raw edge to the competition, a dog-eat-dog in-your-face tension and sweat and the smell of cigarettes (or worse) in the air.

Here, its all so pleasant, so quant. So very British.

As I said, I love the show.

However…

Way back in one of the show’s earlier seasons and I believe during a quarter or semi-final episode, the judges (the incredibly named Paul Hollywood and, at that time, Mary Berry -seriously, can two people have more awesome names?!) wound up booting a very young contestant from the show. I thought they did so not so much for what she did that particular episode, but because they got to the point in the late stages of the season where they felt she didn’t deserve to go to the finals rather than performed poorly enough in the given episode.

But before I get to the whys of this, let me explain what the show is about.

Each episode of The Great British Bake Off features three “challenges” which are…

…a signature bake, which tests the bakers’ personality and creative flair; a technical bake, which tests experience; and a showstopper bake, during which the bakers are able to showcase their depth of skill and talent.

The first two challenges are considered lesser challenges but do, of course, figure into the ultimate judgment at the end. The final bake, the “showstopper” is graded much more strongly and, in various episodes has times saved or condemned chefs who were on the proverbial bubble.

Which, is as it should be, if each episode was graded strictly.

However… (redux)…

Back in that early season episode I mentioned above, this very young chef (she was, if memory serves, maybe just turning 20), was at times inconsistent in her baked deliveries but clearly tried very hard. No, she was not the very “best” of the chefs, especially in the show’s early episodes (it sometimes takes a bit for a chef to start to shine), but each week you could see improvement to the point where I began to feel she was a legitimate contender for the finale (again, if memory serves).

So in this particular episode, and if memory serves, she does decently in the first two rounds and quite well in the showstopper round. I felt -and this was obviously my opinion and nothing more- her overall performance, based on what the judges said, was better than at least one if not two of the remaining chefs.

And further, I felt one of the more consistent chefs, one of the ones that looked to be a shoo-in to the finale, should have been booted at that point instead of her.

Yet she wound up being the one removed.

The family and I -we really need to get a life- argued about the choice and I felt, rather strongly, that the judges at that point essentially chucked their grading guidelines in favor of allowing what they felt was the overall better chefs to continue to the finale instead of adhering to their grading guidelines.

Welp, the very same thing seems to have happened again this past Friday with Episode 8 of Season 12, Free From Week.

In this episode, we’re down to the five chefs, Jurgen Krauss, a soft-spoken chef who hails from Germany. He’s easily the most consistent chef of them all, winning star baker 3 times (which means in the 8 episodes aired, he “won” 3 of them) and received Paul Hollywood’s famed handshake (if you know the show, you know what I’m talking about) once.

There’s Giuseppe Dell’Anno, a very pleasant guy who hails from Italy. He’s easily the second most consistent of the chefs and my youngest daughter’s favorite to win it all. He’s had 2 wins and 1 handshake.

There’s Chigs Parmar, a young and rising talent who started a little rough but over the weeks got his act together and created some very beautiful bakes, and according to the judges tasty, bakes. He’s won 2 star bakers and gotten 1 handshake.

There’s Crystelle Pereira, another incredibly pleasant chef who’s won 1 star baker and gotten 1 handshake. She can be very, very good but at times flounders.

Finally, there’s Lizzie Acker, the most inconsistent of the remaining bakers. She tends to impress with her flavors but often presents bakes that simply do not look all that good.

Yes, these bakes are graded for flavor and presentation!

The rundown of the final five I’ve given above was done very much on purpose: I’ve given you who I believe is in the #1 position through who I believe is in #5 position.

So, logically, Lizzie Acker is the one that would seem to be the one most at risk.

True to form, she was the one cut in this latest episode.

However… (redux times two)…

The fact is that in this episode she didn’t do badly at all. In fact, she did quite well -at least according to the judges- with her “showstopper” bake while Giuseppe Dell’Anno, the man I feel is the #2 position… most certainly did not.

The first two rounds were, it felt, something of a wash. Crystelle Pereira did the worst on the technical round and Lizzie Acker, if memory serves, was in 3rd place. The first round, frankly, escapes my memory but I believe everyone did decently enough.

So like previous episodes of the show, to me and the family it seemed like the “showstopper” round would be the one to decide who goes forward and which of the five would get cut.

Here’s where the trouble comes in: Every one of the contestants did very well in the showstopper round, including Ms. Acker… except for Giuseppe Dell-Anno. His bake, the judges felt, was a failure, both in how it looked as well as how it tasted.

Once the reviews by the judges were done, the family and I (I repeat: We gotta get a life) got into an argument over who we felt was about to be kicked out.

My youngest daughter, who wants Guiseppe to win, was disheartened. As much as she felt he was the one who was going to win in the end, she acknowledged that based on his showstopper performance, things weren’t looking good for him.

It seemed, frankly, like we were about to witness a HUGE upset: that one of the two top chefs in this season’s show was about to go down.

And here’s where, IMHO, the judges decided to chuck their rules.

In the conversation Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith (she took over for Mary Berry), the show’s hosts talked with them about who looked to be a potential star baker and who was in danger of elimination (they do this, by the way, every episode and just before the judgment is rendered).

Paul Hollywood, at this point, says something to the effect of “Guiseppe did well enough in the first two rounds to make it to the next.”

My jaw, frankly, dropped.

He effectively gave Guiseppe a pass for a rare (it was!) failure in what should have been the round that determines who stays and who goes: The showstopper!

Again: That’s not the way it should be. The showstopper round is supposed to be the single biggest determinant of success, and Guiseppe plain and simply failed while everyone else, including Ms. Acker, did well!

By all rights, and though it would have been an incredibly shocking development, Guiseppe wound up staying while Ms. Acker was booted!

It’s annoying, to say the least, and it shows that, at least on The Great British Baking Show, sometimes your previous successes guarantee your future ones.

Movies, TV

Markie Post (1950-2021)

This is the type of news that both shocks and depresses me… as if I needed more of that…!

Markie Post, known best for roles in the TV show Night Court (1984-1992) and The Fall Guy (1982-1985) has passed away at the age of 70 after a three year battle against cancer.

CNN offers a good article/encapsulation of her acting career here.

For me, Markie Post was an actress who I must admit I had a bit of a crush on back in the day. She was an incredibly beautiful woman but her looks weren’t all… she was quite good in Night Court, holding more than her own with the large cast…

As one gets older, one of the very sad things one comes to find is that people who, in your mind, are frozen in time do indeed -like all us mortals- age.

For me, Markie Post was forever young and beautiful in my mind. Frankly, it was something of a shock to realize that not only was she 70, but that she passed away at that age… nowadays that seems way too young.

Good night, Attorney Christine Sullivan.

Movies, TV

Ned Beatty (1937-2021)

Sad word came last night that actor Ned Beatty had passed away at the age of 83.

See the source image

Mr. Beatty was an incredible movie and TV actor. Though he may have never been “good looking” enough to be a dashing leading man but he was so talented that he never fell into what might be considered “regular” supporting roles.

His first big role was a startling one, that of Bobby, one of the four would-be outdoorsmen who made the very bad decision to canoe out into a Georgian river soon to be wiped out by a dam and encounter hostiles and quite literally a U.S. version of The Heart of Darkness…

Ned Beatty dies at 83: Legendary actor from 'Deliverance,' 'Superman'
From left to right, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Burt Reynolds, and Jon Voight in Deliverance (1972)

The relationship between Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty seemed to be a positive one. He would go on to play the in three other movies with Mr. Reynolds.

As mentioned before, he would play so many different types of characters. In White Lighting (1973) he was a cold-blooded corrupt sheriff up against good ol’ boy Burt Reynolds. In Network (1976) he had a six minute role as a high ranking executive, a chilling scene which earned him an Oscar for best supporting actor.

A few years later he would play the buffoon right hand man of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor in the incredible -and still my all time favorite superhero film- Superman (1978)…

See the source image

He would also be memorable in Silver Streak (1976) the first film featuring the pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryer, and was terrific in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

A fascinating actor with a plethora of credits.

He had a long, good run but he will be missed!

General, Movies, TV

William Shatner At 90…

Absolutely fascinating interview with actor/director/writer William Shatner by Hadley Freeman and presented on theguardian.com:

“Take it easy, nothing matters in the end”: William Shatner at 90 on love, loss, and Leonard Nimoy

There are few actors alive today who I can say have been a big part of my awareness from pretty much the moment I first got into film/TV shows back in the very, very early 1970’s and through today.

William Shatner is one of them, certainly, and its always fascinating to read interviews with him.

Of course, Mr. Shatner, the man, has an equally long history, sometimes not so good. Cast members of his biggest hit, the original Star Trek and the subsequent movies made with them, have been at times very harsh toward Mr. Shatner. Several of them felt slighted by Mr. Shatner and accusations of being a diva on set while demanding the spotlight are a near constant accusation.

I suppose it could be much worse but, then again, I never worked with him so I don’t know how accurate these stories are… though their consistency lends a certain credence to these stories.

Regarding this interview, Mr. Shatner sure does come across as one expects: He’s at times flamboyant, humorous, and nonsensical… and yet at other times offers profound statements as befitting someone who has lived as long as he has.

Regarding Leonard Nimoy -and at the risk of spoiling the interview- Mr. Shatner seems sad that their relationship, toward the end of Mr. Nimoy’s life, was at a low ebb and confused as to how it got there.

I wonder, though, how much of this is due to Mr. Shatner’s lack of self-awareness.

I’ve noted before elsewhere that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, considered by almost everyone the worst of the original cast Star Trek films, is also the only one of the Star Trek films Mr. Shatner directed. Many point their fingers at Mr. Shatner and his direction for the film’s failure, but the reality is that he didn’t do a bad job, IMHO, directing. What led to the film’s failure was a studio that kept cutting the film’s budget -the shoddy effects in that film are easily the nadir of Star Trek features- and the story, also by Mr. Shatner, was perhaps a little too ambitious and needed more polishing.

However, if there is one really big failure William Shatner, director, had with Star Trek V it was, again IMHO, in not getting any sort of decent performance out of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. In fact, it felt to me like that was the worst performance Mr. Nimoy ever gave of his beloved Spock character.

Why is that?

In part, one has to remember that at that time –Star Trek V was released in 1989- Leonard Nimoy was on a roll as a director himself.

Thanks to the shocking ending and stunning success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the studios were forced to offer Leonard Nimoy more to return to the franchise. One of the lures was that he be allowed to direct the next Star Trek film.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy’s directing debut, was a success and Mr. Nimoy then directed its follow up, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That film turned out to be perhaps the biggest critical success of the franchise, mixing humor and suspense and delivering a delightful experience to fans of the franchise as well as those who knew little to nothing about it.

So successful was Mr. Nimoy that he would go on to direct Three Men and a Baby, a non-Trek comedy, and it too was a HUGE success. Quite suddenly, Mr. Nimoy was in high demand as a director.

However, Mr. Shatner, seeing how Mr. Nimoy was able to get to direct, also used his clout to get a clause in his contract which would allow him to direct Star Trek V and he came to do just that… just as Mr. Nimoy was enjoying all his considerable successes.

I can’t help but wonder, given how poor Mr. Nimoy’s performance -again IMHO!- in Star Trek V was, whether his poor acting in that film was due to petulance, disinterest, or just plain unhappiness about working under Mr. Shatner.

Worth noting is that the next Star Trek film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the last featuring the original cast, would feature a story where Nimoy’s Spock and Shatner’s Kirk were kept apart for the bulk of the film.

Was this done on purpose? Was Nimoy essentially done with Shatner by that point and no longer cared to engage with him?

I don’t know though its hard to read the above interview and subscribe entirely to Shatner’s view that their friendship had simply cooled down with Shatner having no clear idea why.

I recall William Shatner was interviewed not too long after Mr. Nimoy’s passing in 2015 on the Howard Stern radio show and he was asked if he attended the man’s funeral. Mr. Shatner said he didn’t and I got the impression that he didn’t really want to be there, either. If memory serves, Mr. Stern then noted that just because people were close in their film/TV appearances, it didn’t mean they were equally close in real life.

I don’t recall Mr. Shatner dispelling that notion in the interview, but I could be mis-remembering.

Regardless, the above interview is a fascinating one and the title of the interview, in particular, really hits home for me as the years pass:

Take it easy, nothing matters in the end.

It’s a particularly heady statement, one that resonates and saddens me because of how true it is. But, it’s not the full quote. Here it is:

I’m glad I didn’t know because what you know at 90 is: take it easy, nothing matters in the end, what goes up must come down. If I’d known that at 20, I wouldn’t have done anything!

An interesting notion and a paradox of sorts. While its true that we have only so many years to “make our mark”, and its equally true that in perhaps a hundred years whatever we have done with our lives may not “matter” as Mr. Shatner puts it, we nonetheless must feel like it does matter or else we “wouldn’t have done anything.”

Fascinating stuff.

TV

Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live…

So, Saturday Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, hosted Saturday Night Live and…

…it seems he did a decent if not extraordinary job.

Elon Musk Was the Worst 'SNL' Host Ever (Commentary)
Elon Musk as Wario on Saturday Night Live… May have to see what the heck this skit was about

Interesting how that happens when you’re not a comedian and/or actor and host the show, eh?

There was a bit of controversy surrounding his hosting because in the past he stated he was against unions (bad), and early on in the pandemic dismissing the seriousness of COVID-19 (also bad), and, of course, there are a few of those idiotic tweets he issued (IMHO overblown but, at times, cringey).

Anyway, some folks had rough words against SNL for having him host and… now that it’s over it all feels so overblown.

Look, those things I noted above do not endear me to Mr. Musk, much as I love my Model 3.

It feels like he should allow his workers to Unionize but he’s not the only CEO who works against that (looking at you, Jeff Bezos). Further to that, he’s not the only person who stated stupid things regarding COVID-19, though this was early on and he hasn’t repeated them -to my knowledge- since. Yes, he pushed to keep his factories open and yes, there was a surge in COVID cases among his workers and that’s very much on him.

However, unlike Mr. Musk -who I’m guessing has reconsidered those early stupid statements, though perhaps I’m giving him more latitude than I should- there currently exists an entire “news” group that devotes their time continuing in efforts to put down the seriousness of this virus despite the overwhelming and abundant evidence of how serious it is… just look at the grim news coming out of India.

Anyway, Musk’s hosting was the topic du jour for one very hot minute and today, Monday, two days later, people are showing highlights and examining which jokes landed and which didn’t…

…and it feels like this story about Musk’s hosting of SNL was, in the end, a very minor one that will likely be forgotten before week’s end.

Its interesting, if nothing else, to see how the internet/news establishment “flames on” with what is ultimately a relatively small topic, nonetheless builds it up and, when its been used up, move on to whatever’s next.

Wonder what that will be?

TV

Elon Musk… hosting Saturday Night Live?

Sorry I’ve been away from these parts for a few days… been busy moving my daughter -who finished her University studies- and is moving out of her apartment and needed help doing so.

…My back this morning sure does appreciate that fact…

Anyway, there’s been interesting news and events and we’re still in the middle of the Coronavirus Pandemic and I remain disheartened to find some people in other parts of the state ignoring using masks. For example, there’s this terrific Pizza place near my daughter’s apartment -how I wish I had this place close to home!- and I was totally shocked when I went into the place to pick up our order and found the entire staff of the place -a smallish, closed in restaurant- operating without using any masks.

In fact, the only masks I saw were from people who came in to pick up their orders!

Anyway, as I said, there’s been other news, perhaps things more important than this, but Elon Musk, the CEO of electric car maker Tesla and SpaceX, will host Saturday Night Live on May 8th (right around the corner!) and Dean Obeidallah over on CNN.com feels…

Elon Musk doesn’t deserve to host Saturday Night Live

While acknowledging the fact that having someone as high profile as Mr. Musk as the show’s host, Mr. Obeidallah feels:

(Saturday Night Live) should do better than bestowing that honor on Musk, given his irresponsible statements about Covid-19 and his insensitive comments surrounding the transgender community.

“Honor” being invited to host SNL.

I mean, I can see his point. When the Pandemic was first raging, Mr. Musk did indeed make some outrageous comments regarding the pandemic. Indeed, he seems to me like the people at that Pizza place I mentioned above, someone who discounts the seriousness of Coronavirus.

But…

His statements may well be silly -or well beyond- but they’re not quite as outright stupid as some others I’ve heard. Looking at you, MyPillow Guy and Ted Nugent, not to mention one Donald J. Trump… who actually has hosted the show, though I would grant you it was before he became the nightmare president we’ve had to deal with.

Besides, SNL is, like it or not, a show where they can do what they want within the parameters of what is allowed by the station it runs on.

Having said all that, and acknowledging that I love my Tesla Model 3 even as I sometimes cringe at what Elon Musk says… I wonder if the episode will be any good.

Elon Musk, as clever as he is with his businesses, is something of an awkward public speaker, at least IMHO.

I can’t help but wonder that his appearance, regardless of some of the controversial things he’s said, will be a dud only because I don’t know if he has the acting/comedic chops to be a successful host.

We’ll certainly see in a few weeks, won’t we?

TV

Twin Peaks (2017) A (First Half Of The Season) Review

Had to do some flying (*gasp*) to take care of some family business so I haven’t been around as much as I wanted. Luckily, I’ve already had my two Pfizer shots and, while the entire two weeks’ time since the second injection hadn’t quite elapsed (they did the day after I returned home), I felt far more comfortable doing this trip than I have the previous one I was also forced to do earlier on.

Whew.

Anyway: Get vaccinated, people! If I could do it, you can as well and most states nowadays seem to be offering vaccines to almost everyone.

Ahem.

Anyway, Twin Peaks 2017.

I recall the show being released -to Showtime- and it was for a little while the talk of critics, but it didn’t seem to be the world-stopping event that some other writer/director David Lynch works, up to and including the original season of Twin Peaks released waaaaaay back in 1989. The show lasted two seasons before being cancelled, with many saying that once Lynch left the show in the second season it went downhill.

A year or so after the TV series was done, David Lynch would release Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which was originally met with considerable critical hatred though, over the years, people re-assessed it far more positively.

Anyway, that movie came out in 1992 and a whopping twenty nine years later and via Showtime what is effectively the third season of Twin Peaks was released and, thanks to the free time both on my flight and afterwards, I was able to blow through eight of the 18 episodes made.

As I said above, this new “season” of Twin Peaks didn’t seem to have the lasting power some of Lynch’s works have. It’s been four years since its release and I have to admit it surprised me to remember I picked it up -digitally- a while back and had yet to see it.

I wondered why it was that it didn’t seem to peak like some other Lynch works and, further, if maybe this series might wind up being something of a disappointment.

Based on the 8 episodes I’ve seen, culminating in an episode which I recall some critics were particularly blown away (pun intended, I guess!) over, the show is a fascinating, though perhaps over stuffed, work that falls neatly in line with your typical Lynchian work.

But its also a lot of material being thrown at you and at times its bewildering, amusing, creepy, and drawn out… and I’m not sure if it might have benefitted from being a little more streamlined.

For example, what many consider David Lynch’s best work, the 2001 film Mulholland Dr., was originally intended to be a TV series not unlike Twin Peaks but ultimately wound up being compressed into a fantastic two and a half hour movie. There was weirdness, there was comedy, there was rot under the gleaming surface, but there was also a story that was told in toto without any real bloat.

I worry that with this Twin Peaks work, as fantastic as it is at times, we’re given more extraneous stuff than is necessary.

Worries aside, the eight episodes I’ve seen so far have been enjoyable. There are bits that are absolutely hilarious mixed with bits that are creepy and suspenseful as hell. Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost (who worked with him on the original Twin Peaks show) have given us a veritable avalanche of characters moving about doing their thing, natural or supernatural, and in the middle of it all are two Dale Coopers (Longtime Lynch collaborator/actor Kyle MacLachlan), one who is possessed by evil and the other -dazed for the episodes I’ve seen- is the “good” Agent Dale Cooper, recently released from the mystical Black Lodge where he’s been imprisoned for over twenty five years while his evil version runs rampant on the roads of the U.S.

It’s difficult to give a full on review of the series, not having seen it all yet, but at least for these eight episodes I’ve been entertained, certainly, and have to give considerable credit to Mr. Lynch and company for creating something as visually sumptuous and meaty as this series and not lose track and go off the rails into complete bizarreness.

Anyway, a thumbs up for me -at least for now!- and let’s see how the rest plays out…

Movies, TV

Jessica Walter (1941-2021)

A couple of days ago came the very sad news of the passing of actor George Segal and yesterday came the equally sad news of the passing of another great actor, Jessica Walter.

Jessica Walter dead: Veteran actor starred on 'Arrested Development' - Chicago Sun-Times

Jessica Walter’s been around for a very long time, her first roles on television appearing in the early 1960’s, and has an incredible number of roles over her career, the most recent of which were the acerbic Lucille Bluth, the matriarch of the Bluth household in the hilarious series Arrested Development, and as the voice of Mallory Archer in the equally hilarious cartoon series Archer. The later role, quite frankly, was an extension of the Lucille Bluth role and featured an equally acerbic and borderline alcoholic character whose self-interest is as pathological as it is laugh out loud funny.

But her roles weren’t all comedic, and she made an especially chilling spurned one-night stand in Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, the 1971 film Play Misty For Me. The film was essentially reworked/remade in the film Fatal Attraction…

She left behind a very long list of roles and had a very healthy career.

She will very much be missed.

Movies, TV

George Segal (1934-2021)

Sad news came out yesterday of the passing of actor George Segal.

He isn’t one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but he’s had quite the career in both film and TV, the latest work being in the TV comedy series The Goldbergs.

What intrigued me about Mr. Segal is that he seemed so comfortable in both comedies and dramas.

He was terrific in “serious” roles such as King Rat, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and The Terminal Man.

But he was also great in comedies such as The Hot Rock opposite Robert Redford…

…as well as the original Fun With Dick and Jane, opposite Jane Fonda…

As well as the wonderful comedy The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, opposite Goldie Hawn…

A very talented man who left behind a very long, and fascinating, career worth of enjoyable work.

He will be missed!

Movies, Music, TV

Love the art…?

1 Comment

There’s an old saying about “loving the art, not the artist” when it comes to works you really like but whose creator is someone you may have issues with.

It’s an intriguing thought experiment and it does point out your tolerance for the antics of people and also, perhaps, your limits.

Of late, various cast members of both Buffy The Vampire Slayer and its follow-up series Angel have spoken up about creator and main producer Joss Whedon.

What they say about him isn’t pretty.

There have been stirrings for a while regarding Joss Whedon. Back in 2017 his ex-wife Kai Cole wrote a scathing letter regarding her ex.

Among other things she pointed out his hypocrisy, that he claimed he was a “feminist” while having numerous affairs behind his wife’s back. Click the link in the above paragraph if you want to read the full details Ms. Cole presented.

Still, Mr. Whedon remained a high in demand director. He had a cult following for his various series, including Firefly, which while perhaps prematurely cancelled, was popular enough to have Serenity, a concluding feature film made out of it.

But there remained whispers out there about Mr. Whedon and the next big negative press he received occurred following his taking over for Zack Snyder to finish up (actually re-do, based on what I’ve read) the 2017 film Justice League.

Actor Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the film, originally praised Mr. Whedon. Perhaps it was part of the Hollywood game to offer praise to all those you work with. In time, though, he had a change of heart and announced he could no longer do it.

In 2020 Mr. Fisher formally accused Joss Whedon of “abusive, unprofessional” behavior. Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in the film, lent support to Mr. Fisher, noting that “serious stuff went down” during the Justice League reshoots which Mr. Whedon made.

Though less vocal, Gal Gadot, who played Wonder Woman in the film, also stated her experience working with Mr. Whedon “wasn’t the best one”.

Now, within the past couple of days, Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia Chase in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, took to twitter to not only say she believed Ray Fisher’s accounts of Joss Whedon’s abuses, but that she herself was a victim of them.

It’s truly a harrowing account and, from the link in the above paragraph:

Carpenter’s accounts of Whedon’s “harassment” and “serialized abuses of power” include him accusing her of “sabotaging” “Angel” by getting pregnant and “calling [her] ‘fat’ to colleagues.” For Whedon, perhaps, it all ended with him “unceremoniously” firing Carpenter from the series after she gave birth, but the actor couldn’t move on that easily.

After Ms. Carpenter spoke, the floodgates truly did open. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy, stated she was proud of her work on the show but that “I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon. Amber Benson, who played Tara on the show, stated “Buffy was a toxic environment and it starts at the top”.

Perhaps the most chilling statement came from Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s little sister and was a teenager when she worked on the series. She noted that after some incident between them Mr. Whedon and she, he was not allowed to be alone with her.

Incredibly, there are still more stories coming out, including one regarding how he abused female writers he worked with and took a sadistic pleasure in making them cry.

Yikes.

As I mentioned above, one can love the art but not the artist but there does come a point where the artist becomes so loathsome within your mind that the work produced by them may be tainted and, for you, impossible to love it again.

I’ve read posts from people who cannot watch any Mel Gibson films because of his drunken actions many years before. While he claims he was at the time drinking too much and nearing a nervous breakdown, its still tough to accept his racist and abusive words -all recorded- as simply coming out of that alone.

Similarly, following the death of David Bowie, there were those who noted he is alleged to have had sexual relations with underage girls back in the early to mid-70’s. Yeah, it was a different time and there were teenage groupies who made it a point of sleeping with rock stars and, yeah, there so many drugs being used and, yeah, there are similar allegations/stories related to other very big musical artists who were popular at the time…

…but you know what? All that’s an excuse if these people, who should have known better, were allegedly having sex with underage girls.

Unlike David Bowie, I’m not the biggest Joss Whedon fan out there. While I enjoyed Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, if I never see an episode of these shows I truthfully won’t miss them. Similarly, I doubt I’ll revisit either of his Avenger films or his version of Justice League.

Further, based on the press he’s getting now, I wonder if he’ll become a pariah in Hollywood and we’ve seen the last new material from him.

Perhaps.

But I love the music of David Bowie and I’ve mentioned it plenty of times around these parts. As much as I like his music, I’ve taken great pains to avoid any detailed biographies about him. I’ve done the same regarding biographies about Led Zeppelin. The Doors. The Rolling Stones. Even The Beatles.

Why?

I suppose its a form of cowardice on my part. I so like the music created by these people and I’m afraid I won’t know how to feel about this music I love so much when I’m confronted by all the alleged nasty details related to those who created them.

Recently, Courtney Enlow presented this article for io9.com:

It’s Well Past Time to Rethink ‘Auteur Theory’ and the Way Actresses Are Treated

In the article, which touches upon the recent Joss Whedon revelations, Ms. Enlow points out the oft told story of how director Stanley Kubrick treated actress Shelley Duvall on the set of The Shining as well as actor Tippi Hendrin’s revelations about how Alfred Hitchcock treated her -sadistically- on the set of The Birds.

I love both films and consider them classics of the horror genre.

But each time I hear/read the stories about how Ms. Duvall and Ms. Hendrin were treated on the sets of these films… I can’t help but realize that what we’re seeing on the screen is genuine suffering by the actors who were treated terribly by those two directors.

And I have to admit… I don’t know if I can watch those films again.

Two films I love by directors whose work I generally love. Songs created by people who may have been engaged in some very questionable activities.

It’s a tough line to draw.

When can one no longer love the art because of the artist?