Harold Ramis R.I.P.

I am always looking for things to write about, but this time I wish I weren't inspired.

I was rocked today to learn that Harold Ramis has passed away, at age 69,  of complications from autoimmune imflammatory vasculitis.

Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters

I would be upset anyway, but a few years ago I actually met the man, and was so thoroughly impressed in my brief time around him that today is suddenly shadowed with an extra patina of grief.

I am sometimes employed in the film industry, and I was spending some time in Shreveport, Louisiana, trying to break in. My attempts at getting hired as a crew member were coming to naught at the time, so I had to fall back on a job I had hoped to not have to do again, work as an extra or, as some like to call it, "background artist." Fortunately, the film Year One was nearing the end of its principal photography, and a few scenes near the beginning of the film, before Jack Black and Michael Cera's characters are banished from their village, remained to be shot.  Production was looking for people who had not yet worked on the movie to play these primitive tribespeople for several days of work, and fortunately I got the booking.

Me, in full costume and make-up, on the set of Year One

Now, Year One, in hindsight, is far from a masterpiece, but I was excited to be working with Black and Cera, a pre-Stefon Bill Hader was on set for his small role in the film, and HAROLD RAMIS was the director.

As a writer, director, producer, and actor, Ramis touched so many great projects that there is a good chance at least one of them ranks among your favorite films or television shows: Ghostbusters, Stripes, Caddyshack, Animal House, Groundhog Day, Knocked Up, SCTV, The Office and so many more. As a performer, he mixed a casual yet sharp intellect with a regular-guy affability that also characterized the films in which you never saw his face. You just liked Harold Ramis and the movies he made. Though he was never the guy who got the most laughs as a performer, he certainly took his share, and Bill Murray wouldn't be half as funny in Stripes or Ghostbusters without Ramis' steady presence to boomerang around.

Harold Ramis directs Michael Cera & Jack Black in Year One

When I met him, he was strolling around set, enjoying the extensive work the set builders and decorators had achieved, clearly loving his job and the accomplishments of his crew. He was so approachable that people did approach him, and he didn't care if you were the star of the film, the first assistant director or a lowly extra like me. He had a smile on his face, actually engaged with anyone who talked to him, and left a lot of people in Shreveport, Louisiana discussing how freaking great Harold Ramis was.

It is no secret that talented people are not necessarily pleasant, or even decent human beings, but Harold Ramis was easily among the most warm and thoughtful of the famous people I've ever met or worked with. At age 69, he should still be creating, but tragically that is not the case.

Thank you, Mr. Ramis, for taking a couple of minutes to talk to an enthusiastic extra who enjoyed your work and your sense of humor. Once I've processed the sadness of your loss, I will undoubtedly laugh again, probably at something you made.

Rest in peace.

Banshee: The Truth About The Midpoint

I have written about the Cinemax show Banshee before, and since I've already summarized season one, I'm going to get right into writing about the show's second season at its halfway point. I will try to avoid many overt spoilers, but be forewarned, anyway.

Key art for Banshee season 2

I started watching Banshee as a lark.  I expected it to be full of sex and violence in entertaining amounts, and it certainly fulfilled those criteria. But by the eighth episode, I began to understand that this wasn't just a show about T&A and gunplay. There was actually nuance to a show that had little business being nuanced. Banshee had all the pulpy goodness my adolescent id desired, and all the shades of gray and thoughtful performances my super-ego required. It's not a show constructed for everyone, but the creative team is clearly busting its hump to be different, to be entertaining, and to make every hour count. If it occasionally flirts with camp, well, why not? When you also cast a lot of relatively unknown up and coming actors who are all committed to the insanity and who have genuine chemistry, you get something special.

I, for one, am hooked.

Zeljko Ivanek as Jim Racine

Season one ended with the primary outside antagonist, the gangster Rabbit (the squirrelly Ben Cross) seemingly killed by the hands of his own daughter, Ana aka Carrie Hopewell (the conflicted Ivana Milicevic). Season two picks up the aftermath mainly by stacking a lot of new dominoes which will surely come crashing down again. The Banshee PD is largely given a slap on the wrist for their "every weapon in town" response to Rabbit's invasion by Rabbit-hating FBI Agent Jim Racine (the always fantastic Zeljko Ivanek). Needing some sort of scapegoat, Carrie is incarcerated, which only detonates her already-broken relationship with her husband Gordon Hopewell (the soulful Rus Blackwell) and daughter Deva (the coltish Ryann Shane). The tensions between new Kinaho tribe leader Alex Longshadow (the assured Anthony Ruivivar) and shunned Amish crime boss Kai Proctor (the icily confident Ulrich Thomsen) are paralleled by outrage in both communities when a young Kinaho girl is murdered and the Amish boy who was her secret paramour goes missing.  Also brought into the story's fold with this arc is Chayton Littlestone (dramatic find of the year Geno Segers), a Kinaho gang leader with equal measures of guile, brute strength, intellect, charisma, and a strangely dulcet voice. To say nothing of leading man, faux-Sheriff Lucas Hood (the chisled yet compellingly human Antony Starr), who finally pulls off a long-planned armored car heist, has to head up the aforementoned murder investigation despite not being a real cop, must bed two of the most attractive women on television, sister of Alex and Kinaho enforcer Nola Longshadow (the otherworldly Odette Annable) and deputy Siobhan Kelly (the grounded yet luminous Trieste Kelly Dunn) with whom he has exhibited obvious chemistry, and, oh yeah, deal with the arrival of the REAL Lucas Hood's son, Jason (the fresh-faced Harrison Thomas) who needs a favor from Lucas.

Geno Segers as Chayton Littlestone

Damn that's a good bit of story. And it's not even all of it! As I've said, Banshee packs in a lot.

Some further observations:

Lili Simmons as Rebecca Bowman and Ulrich Thomsen as Kai Proctor

-The murder storyline underscores the complex pull/push Kai Proctor has with his Amish heritage while also illustrating the widening familial gulf Proctor's niece, Rebecca Bowman (the dangerously attractive Lili Simmons) is forced to navigate. This is clearly another conflicted central duo in the show going forward, and the Kai/Rebecca relationship is rich and troubling in all the amazing premium cable ways. Though Proctor is one hell of a villain, and this season's action has greatly added to his shading, I can see Rebecca unseating him by the time Banshee finishes its run. When you add the unreadable menace that is Proctor aide/bodyguard Clay Burton (the mysterious and bow-tie bedecked Matthew Rauch), the ex-Amish organized crime contingent becomes all the more volatile.

Trieste Kelly Dunn as Siobhan Kelly

-Once again, I love Trieste Kelly Dunn as Siobhan Kelly. In season two's second episode, "The Thunder Man," she finally gets the signature moment the character has needed.  Siobhan's shitbag ex-husband Breece (the joyfully scuzzy Peter Scanavino) returns to town. After a promising overture, he reveals his true colors and, rather than rolling over or sending a concerned Hood to solve her problem, Siobhan goes to Breece's hotel room, destroys the place in the ensuing fight, and utilizes a finishing move I hope makes it into the eventual Banshee video game when she uses the bedside Gideon Bible to absolutely beat the hell out of her abusive dickface ex. Siobhan's bristly exterior over the entirety of season one was made flesh, and she overcame her demons with a bare-knuckled exorcism.

Demetrius Grosse as Emmett Yawners

-No starring cast member has been given less to do in fifteen episodes than Demetrius Grosse as Deputy Emmett Yawners. I fully expect that to soon not be the case. Chayton Littlestone, while incarcerated, showed a particular disdain for Emmett, essentially calling him a slave and throwing discarded chains at him. First, Demetrius Grosse is great. I took notice of him as Errol in the third season of Justified, and if I took Banshee to task for not giving Brock Lotus (wiseacre Matt Servitto) more to do the last time I wrote about the show, this time I'm going to call for more Demetrius Grosse. Second, I'm going to be happy when, during one of the most epic fight scenes yet filmed in a show known for its fight scenes, Emmett Yawners kicks Chayton Littlestone's ass. Calling it here first, folks.

Greg Yaitanes directing Antony Starr

-Speaking of exclusions, the last time I wrote about the show, I edited out a brief mention of executive producer/director/showrunner Greg Yaitanes from an early draft. I was a fool. Not to slight any of the other producers of the show, but Yaitanes' many hats should not be ignored. His use of Twitter to whip up enthusiasm for Banshee and to drop salient production facts during his livetweets is nothing short of amazing. This guy is a HUGE reason I find Banshee so enjoyable, from the show itself to the way cast and crew openly interact with viewers to the supplemental material the show generates, like the coded, ever-morphing opening credits and the Banshee Origins short films which add layers to the primary action if you choose to view them. Many shows generate additional material which tends to be incidental at best, but Banshee's is utterly compelling.

Hoon Lee as Job. Just Job.

-It admittedly took me a while to wrap my head around fan-favorite character Job, the cross-dressing hacker assayed flamboyantly by Hoon Lee.  Job is probably the most eccentric character on an eccentric show, and Lee's dramatic line readings sometimes seemed out of place to my ears. Either the show has done a better job (no pun intended) of modulating the scenes in which he appears or I finally drank the Kool-Aid, but I am loving Job much more now. Significantly more. Job is frequently near the center of the action as he is one of the few people Hood implicitly trusts, but I would love to see more of him aside from being the computer-savvy guy who can conveniently help out the plot. Although any character paired with Job immediately becomes part of a comedy duo, I firmly believe Job can be far more than the wittiest, bitchiest guy in the room.

Odetta Annable as Nola Longshadow

-The character with the highest batting average this year is Nola Longshadow: Breaking up the armored car heist on a motorcycle, effortlessly seducing Hood (though it doesn't take much), saving Rebecca from a drunken assault before kidnapping her herself, tomahawking the murderer of the Kinaho girl in his prison cell, then disagreeing with Alex's handling of the conflict with Proctor and possibly becoming the wildest card in the show. I imagine anything significant that happens from here on out will somehow involve Nola.

Antony Starr as Lucas Hood and Ivana Milicevic as Carrie Hopewell

-I have to make special mention of the episode that marked the halfway point of season two, the fifth episode titled "The Truth About Unicorns." This episode deeply divided fans online, because, by Banshee standards, it's slow. Yes, an episode that features Carrie screaming in the shower, Carrie getting out of jail, Zeljko Ivanek killing it as usual, two deaths, a visually stunning stalking/shootout in tall grass, and a burning house is "slow". Not to cast aspersions, but fans of the show who didn't like this episode are idiots. I rank it as my second favorite episode behind season one's "We Shall Live Forever," not coincidentally another Carrie-heavy episode (no actor has been better served by Banshee's twists, turns, and tourniquets than Milicevic, and she hugs those story corners like a high performance race car).  Banshee has to serve so many characters and, with Carrie sequestered for a couple of episodes, the show's central Lucas/Carrie relationship was in danger of getting short shrift. Dedicating an hour to letting Starr and Milicevic open their interior lives to each other was a bold, yet wise, choice.  This relationship full of fire and lust and danger and promises for the future is now a trusting, thoughtful, respecting...friendship. That these two love each other enough to acknowledge their distance is what I hope I can find in a partner if I ever pull 15 years in prison to shield her from the consequences of a jewel heist, then return to her unexpectedly and help wreck both the cover keeping her safe as well as her marriage. It is almost heartbreaking to think of this episode as an elegy to the hopes and dreams of Lucas and Carrie, but that's exactly what it is. It's beautiful, though the show characteristically undercuts the melodrama with Lucas' "Fuck that" after Sugar Bates' (the world-weary Frankie Faison) heartfelt speech at the end of the episode.

-If Ivana Milicevic, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Lili Simmons, and Odette Annable aren't toplining significant feature films within the next five years, I just don't know what.

-Antony Starr, too.

-I imagine that Banshee is brutal to shoot.They film in a fairly humid part of country during the summer. They do a lot of fight scenes and other stunts, as well as complex shots requiring discrete special effects A fair amount of the action happens in the dark, necessitating tiring night shoots. Add it all up, and it's a grind. From what I can tell, the cast and crew seem to genuinely get along despite, or perhaps because of, the difficulties of production. This has very little to do with anything, really, except that it makes me happy to see.

Yeah, happy. A TV show makes me happy. I'm cool with that. Here's to the final five of Banshee season two.

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