CentaurCinema

In Dramatic Fashion… Wait this is a Comedy Right?

I hated Parent Hood. While the last season. I hated it because it became too dramatic. It was always about the group home kid and his problems. Being a kid that made me mad because I wanted to see the funny antics of Faizon Love and Robert Townsend. But they probably put in there because they were running out of ideas. But whatever the case the store became a hate/ love relatonship. Because I grew up on that show and for it to be about a boy was weird. Moesha want down that same path with Ray-J/ Onyx storyline that was too dramatic. Still mad they didn’t tell me whether or not Miles was coming home and who baby is going to pop up.

The Game is my new hatred. It has become too dramatic for no reason. They just have all storyline all about bad decisions. Shouldn’t we be having fun? Laughing at Derwin and Melanie instead of wondering if their marriage will survive. If I wanted cliffhangers I would watch Young and Restless. Yes I watch Young and the Restless. But The Game is about their problems. I should be gut busting right now.

There needs to be a balance about this. This probably comes from the fact Salim And his wife are only ones who write this. If you got to write 24 episodes by yourself, you will run out of ideas. The Game seems like it ran out of ideas when it came back on BET. Just too many dramatics and not enough funny. 

When I think of balance I think of the Will Smith episode where Will gets shot. There were serious moments in there but most of it was funny. At the end the cast and made a PSA about violence and guns. But you knew that this was a one-shot deal and they would back to Will’s antics. I never felt like I was watching a dramatic show when they had to make something dramatic: Will’s relationship with Nia Long, no apartment, etc. it made you look and listen.

http://youtu.be/rJ31eBipr_g (Can’t Embed) Will And Carlton Gun Violence

Our shows lack this balance because we don’t have dramatic for African American people. The last one was Lincoln Heights and ones before that was Soul Food and Barbershop. Those three shows I just mentioned wasn’t that good. But they were dramatic shows. I just wish we had more African American wanting to go to film school so we could get better writers and directors. Or people who had a little hint of what to do. 

I just hope the Game next season get back to having fun and creating a fun show again. A show that is about football players and their lives. Making fun of the football culture. Making fun of the whole situation. Just have fun. The stories these athletes go thru is funny. Turner from Atlanta has 8 baby mommas. Pacman and his antics. I think these athletes are comedic. And also sad. What happened to Charles Henry was funny and sad at the same time. 

With that being said check the latest episode of The Number. Good Episode. ‘Nuff Said. Just Watch.

War Beyond The Grave and The War At Home

War is about caring. Caring about a cause enough for people to die for it. And knowing when they die the people they will fight for will care. These days people complain that Memorial Day has become more about celebration of life instead of death. Death of the solider, who bleed for the soil that has made many innocent people bleed. Who has created a culture set on violence. So why people don’t care about the solider? The person who supposedly is dying to keep our liberties safe?

When Vietnam came around, this was the first time that America society decided that war wasn’t necessary. Solider came home with protest signs, causing confusion about  whether war was worth it. There was many movies showing this: Apocalypse Now, Rambo: First Blood, Dead Presidents, Full Metal Jacket, Born on the First of July, and even Forrest Gump. These soldiers was fragile characters dealing with issues during the war and after. Larenz Tate dealing with having no money after returning from this war. Martin Sheen going crazy before and after killing Marlon Brando. These characters weren’t really heroic and show a side of the war that wasn’t portrayed in the media.

For the next wars the government decided to use the media as a way to show the solider as a great person. The John Wayne guy, The General Patton guyy, the guy who was humble and killing the right people. Those movies suck. Act of Valor, Battle: Los Angeles (yes that was a Marine instructional video), and the Marine. Those movies look and feel forced. They seem like we getting forced to listen to something that doesn’t seem real. When you watch the news from Iraq it usually involved death of a soldier, soldier killing innocents, and killing a top Al-Qaeda official. We don’t know nothing about the team that killed Bin Laden. We need to know stories daily that shows these soldiers looking like G.I Joe instead of a mercenary or Call Of Duty.

But the best soldier films follow in the tradition of the fragile soldier: The Hurt Locker, In the Valley of Elah, The Green Zone, Jarhead, and Wag The Dog. Those movies are good and shows that soldiers even with guns are still succumbed to civilian life. That these soldiers struggle with issues that have to do with war that doesn’t make sense to both hero and the villain. 

So this is the solution to supporting the soldiers. They need to pay the soldiers more. Equip the solider with the best equipment possible. Fight wars that make sense. Fight wars you can talk about everyday. Make stories about soldiers whose lives we can relate to. A war that makes people want to go to war to. Sure people want to war because of 9/11 but after the lies and confusion came out people left. People went crazy and the protests became louder and louder. If something is right then people will follow the cause. People can’t support a war that seems like a rich man’s war. Even the conservatives know the war is wrong. If the war is right, then people will fight.