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Keith Fenimore, a pal of mine who now works for Howard Stern, has long had what I think is a brilliant idea to stage an awards show devoted to character actors (i.e., non-movie stars who are in just about every flick you've ever seen but whose names you don't know). The Character Actor Awards is what Fenimore has titled his idea, and he's still trying to get the requisite backing to pull it off.

Anyhow, I thought of Keith and his idea last night as I was watching the actors' commentary on Tropic Thunder, which has garnered Golden Globe supporting actor noms for Tom Cruise (undeserved and overhyped, in my opinion) and Robert Downey Jr. (who should win, in my opinion). Downey plays an Australian actor who has a pigmentation operation in order to authentically portray a black Vietnam soldier in the movie with the movie, and employs a Dolemite-era dialect throughout.

The performance is risky and brilliant by itself, but on the DVD commentary, Downey does the unexpected: he doesn't drop character, thus staying true to his character, a method maniac who says he never drops character until after the DVD commentary is in the can. Downey's improvised riffs are funnier on the commentary than they are in the movie -- and they're very funny in the movie. For this he should receive some sort of award -- only there aren't any awards acknowledging the genius of special features on DVD. Keith: Maybe if you combined this concept with the Character Actor Awards, you'd have a truly irresistible package.

Human? Robot? Like it isn't obvious.

By the end of Season 3, Battlestar Galactica fans (who refer to the show as BSG, use "frak" as an obscenity, and conclude sentences with "so say we all", what's up, nerds!) had a lot to contend with. If you don't watch the show (and why the frak don't you?) here's where we're at.

Eons ago, us humans invented robots--the cylons--to help us run things. Then, shocking plot twist, the artificially intelligent droids asked themselves why they should take orders, and rebelled. After an ugly war (and a hokey 70s sci-fi serial) the cylons took off, spending the next several decades avoiding us lowly humans. But then, just as it seemed the war could safely be called over, the cylons returned and nuked all the inhabited planets.  The remaining 50,000 or so humans on space ships at the time are now floating around trying to find a mythic planet called Earth to settle on, dodge the cylons, and not kill each other.

For the most part its pretty formulaic sci-fi drama--super sexy people in silver outfits doing battle in space. (A friend likes to point out that the producers somehow dug up the only Playboy Centerfold that can actually act. See above.) And the people who aren't lovely to look at are uber-inspiring, specifically Admiral Adama (played by Edward James Olmos of Stand and Deliver fame) who is relentless with his crew but would happily lay down his life for any of them.

But it's much more than just a drama some indeterminate time in the future, it's a space opera, there's even a little singing. The whole series could easily serve as the subject of a freshman ethics philosophy class. The characters are constantly faced with moral quandaries--when to leave someone behind, who to trust, who to kill--and the characters don't always make the choice your heartstrings tell you they should.

If you haven't started the series yet (and why the frak haven't you?) stop reading now. For everyone else, here's a bit of what to expect from the first half of Season 4:
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Thirty-three years ago, there was a perfectly good drive-in/exploitation flick called Death Race 2000 starring David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. The futuristic premise was that, like the Roman circus, we the violent mob would find entertainment in a cross-country race in which the motorists scored points by running down pedestrians. So simple. So sick. So effective. It was a video game premise before there were video games. The movie was produced by Roger Corman, who understood how to mix cars, guys, and violence in a highly cost-effective formula.

The Coen brothers' dark comedy--almost redundant, I know--Burn After Reading got not so much love in September from critics (including our own), and only one award nomination this month, from those mysterious folks at the Golden Globes. Coming to DVD next Tuesday, the movie made me laugh, and quit a bit. (My dissent here.) If you want full, psychologically rounded characters, look elsewhere. The Coen universe amounts to a parade of fools who deserve violent deaths, and usually receive them. Though the Minnesota-born brothers provide no commentary, as usual, some of the DVD extras on this single-disc package provide insight into their methods, and why A-list talent (like Tilda Swinton, pictured above) flock to participate in their projects, even if that means possible demise by wood chipper or hatchet.
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Several years ago, just as my love affair with the Swedish rock group, ABBA, was beginning to bloom, I saw the stage production of Mamma Mia in Los Angeles with my parents. At the end of the show, they did a mini-concert when everyone was encouraged to get up and dance and, because we rarely turn down an invitation to make fools of ourselves, we jumped up and started grooving immediately. I looked around and saw that we were the only ones in the balcony brave enough to shake it, save one gentleman, several rows back who was dancing with his eyes closed in complete ecstasy. He looked like the ABBA tunes had whisked him away to a fantasy wonderland where he was the king of the Dancing Queens and there was no need for an SOS. I believe it was a combination of that vision, the show, and having excellent taste that ensured ABBA would be the soundtrack to which I would live my life from that moment on.

If you don't totally understand what Mamma Mia is, let me back up. The plot of the musical has nothing to do with the band ABBA except that when the characters break into song, they sing ABBA tunes. So when single mother Donna (Meryl Streep) can't believe that her soon-to-be-married daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has invited all three of the men that might be her father to her wedding (Donna was a bit of a loosey goosey in her younger years), she sings the song "Mamma Mia." Or when Donna's friend Tanya (played by the amazing Christine Baranski) is chiding a younger man for hitting on her, she sings, "Does Your Mother Know." Make sense?

This film is not without its flaws. Not everyone in the cast can sing, occasionally it looks like they inexplicably used two completely different types of cameras and it often feels a bit rushed, like the lease on their Greek isle locale was was about to run out. Yet despite all that, I still LOVED it. It works because you get the sense that they know what they're showing you isn't exactly perfect, but it's been filled with so much heart and fun, you'll be willing to look beyond the wrongs and see all those glorious rights. Julie Walters and Christine Baranski, who play Donna's two best friends steal almost every scene they're in and Seyfried has just enough wide-eyed cuteness to pull off her role without being too sappy. Meryl Streep proves once again that she can conquer any character she wants and the three male leads are endearing even if they can't all carry a tune. Plus, the Greek beaches and sun will transport you out of these frigid winter days and plant you into a story playfully told through some of the most wonderful music in the world. Don't take it too seriously and you'll love it too.

And if the stage production comes through town again, do yourself a favor and go buy tickets. You will never regret being the only person in your aisle dancing your little heart out.

Mamma Mia, Universal Studios, $29.98

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DVD: Law & Order: The Sixth Year
Release Date: Dec. 2
Universal, $59.98
Stars: Jerry Orbach, Sam Watterson, Jill Hennessy, Benjamin Bratt, etc.

From my futon in the winter of 2008, I see three acts of Law & Order: the Chris Noth days of thick leather jackets and no female leads; the Jerry Orbach (Det. Lennie Briscoe)/Sam Watterson (Executive A.D.A. Jack McCoy) domination; and everything after Orbach.

Season six is the sweet spot in act two, the halcyon days of the venerable series that makes today's L&O seem like it's gasping for breath compared to the yarns spun and structural liberties taken by Dick Wolf's crew in what is, rather dramatically, Jill Hennessy's (A.D.A. Claire Kincaid) swan song.

This was before the series would be spun off three efforts (you've already forgotten the canned Trial By Jury, I'm sure), and it is perhaps because the franchise has yet to stretch it legs with Criminal Intent and Special Victims that the writers and producers allow themselves to stray from the billion-dollar formula. They try campy moves like cross-over episodes with Homicide: Life on the Street, where we meet Richard Belzer (Det. John Munch, later to jump to Special Victims). And it's just harder to predict the outcome by the clock on your wall (Wait, he couldn't have done it, there's 15 minutes left!)

1996 was a different time, to be sure. And for those suffering from a bout of '90s nostalgia of late, this is the gift that won't quit. Det. Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) comments that he had to get down on his knees for a seven-percent interest rate on his home. Amanda Peet turns up as a pre- "Ripped From the Headlines" Patty Hearst; Jennifer Gardner appears as the seductive college kid that beds the married Curtis. Detectives ask their suspects if they're "online," and Briscoe muses," Did you know 100 million new words go on that thing every day?"

Ahhh, the '90s.

Title: Deadwood: The Complete Series
Price: $179.97, HBO
Release Date: December 9, 2008

That's right: for those of you who don't own any of the DVDs yet, you can now have them all in one neat, clean little package.  Unfortunately, this release pretty much dashes my hopes that Deadwood, the "based-on" historical Western series known for scandalizing America with its liberal use of fun curse words, will ever be revived to conclude in a somewhat satisfactory manner.  I won't give it away, because I know there are a lot of you out there who have, but the ending totally pissed me off, because it wasn't even an ending. The show seemed to have been building up to something, and then it just stopped abruptly. 

Which is why the first disc I watched out of all 19 discs in the box set was the final bonus disc, which contains creator/producer David Milch's commentary on the meaning of endings.  It was very obvious to me, and pretty much everyone else who watched the entire series, that the conclusion of the series was not planned for, because it was messy and unsatisfying.  Well, Milch admits that, which is a minor consolation-- always nice to bask in the glow of your own rightness.  "The consolation I try to find, when I'm not busy just being pissed off, is that the idea of the end of a thing...is one of the lies agreed upon that we use to organize our lives," he says. And he also said that while a TV show may appear to be building up to a grand conclusion, this is an untruth. The reality, he explains, is that everyone in this business of TV is that the show happens one episode and one day at a time. Nothing is guaranteed in TV, and nothing is guaranteed in life. Touche, David Milch, touche. It's advice that all those pissed off Arrested Development fans (myself included) should probably take to heart. But the best quote from him, I think is this: "The biggest lie is that we are entitled to a meaningful and coherent summarizing-- a conclusion of something which never concludes."