Monthly Archives: September 2023

Reservation Dogs

TV

It feels like three seasons of Reservation Dogs came out all at once in the span of a week instead of three years. It’s been so consistently good and satisfying that each episode was a treat that I never wanted to end. The show is done which is disappointing, but its ending is as strong as its beginning.

We meet the ‘Rez Dogs’, 4 teenage friends, shortly after they lost their friend Daniel to suicide. This–now–clique of 4 is depressed and feeling lost. These kids are Native Americans, living on a depressing reservation in Oklahoma.

I love coming-of-age stories and I think Reservation Dogs is one of the best ever made. The lives of Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Cheese (Lane Factor), and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) are from a culture that is basically ignored in media. Almost the entire cast and crew are Native American and they dig into growing through bad and good times from a different, beautiful angle. I rarely predicted where the show was going to go correctly, which I really love. This show fits in alongside Atlanta and Dave for me.

There is little to do and little opportunity on the reservation. One of the first things we see the Rez Dogs do is steal a delivery truck that delivers the snacks to the only bodega in town. Idle hands are the devil’s playthings and such. People who are born on the reservation rarely leave. Daniel’s biggest goal was to move to California, where he saw endless opportunities. His friends agreed with him and it became their goal too. With his death, the Rez Dogs feel like they have no goals in life and nothing to look forward to.

The idea of not knowing what you want to do in your and the fear of changing the life you know are major themes of the show. So is the power of a community. What I thought would be a show only about the 4 kids expands into something much more.

Most of the episodes are ensemble stories of the Rez Dogs but the series doesn’t shy away from giving individual characters their own focus, especially in the third season. Even the adult characters, who are often on the sidelines, get their fair share to reflect on their past. They have a lot of regrets and some of them, like the kids, need a light shined on their future.

The Rez Dogs eventually go to California to complete Daniel’s wish. It doesn’t go too well. When they make it back to OK, while disappointed they have learned about themselves and start to think more about the future (this segment reminded me of Mad Max Fury Road, one of my favorite movies).

None of the Rez Dogs have both of their parents. Where mother or father or both are missing, immediate and extended family stepped in to raise them. Friends of the family are called Aunt and Uncle. On the reservation, everyone is family. They may be ignored by the outside world, but they do have each other. That’s something the Rez Dogs come to understand and appreciate.

Take Willie Jack, my favorite character, for example. She is a wise ass and ready to go on anything, scam or otherwise, that will move her friends along together. She sees many of the adults as weird but comes to respect and understand them as she learns about their past. It helps her connect the dots in her own life, and how her experiences are shaping her outlook on her life and others. She opens up to learning and we get to see the spark of a future leader.

As events unfold, their childhood starts fading away and adulthood starts to be a real thing. They reflect on their lives of who has and hasn’t been with them. They come to appreciate their elders and look up to them more. You watch them grow as people and look forward to being adults.

These kinds of stories live or die on the cast, and every actor on Reservation Dogs is a knockout performer. Each kid is very different and they’re defined from the very beginning. It’s like the actors immediately knew who the person was on the page and didn’t have to figure anything out, they just became. And then they walked in these character’s shoes for 3 years.

There’s an amazing amount of love and respect woven into the fabric of Reservation Dogs. It’s funny, heartbreaking, touching, really funny, dark, and spiritual. It’s one of those rare pieces of media that you need to watch to understand. I hope this launches a lot of careers forward in the years to come.

The Ice Is Back On

NY Rangers

The wait for the 2023-2024 NHL season is almost over! Preseason has started and the oh-so-important opening night lines are being drawn up and tested.

The New York Rangers played their first game against the Boston Bruins 3-0. The Rangers lineup was almost entirely the younger players (like Jones and Cuylle) and those who were just drafted or are on the minor league teams. So it was a big tryout game as players go out to prove they’ve got what it takes for the regular season. A few guys were cut before and after the game.

While the score isn’t what you want to see, the effort was there and the Bruins new goalie was on fire. Robbed many great shots and 3 or so pipes were hit. Still, none of them went in and Jonathan Quick didn’t have a great game (he played half the game). He bungled one shot which he should have stopped the other one was more or less out of control.

Nothing that alarming to see and there are 5 more games until Oct. 12 when the regular season starts against Buffalo. Tuesday is next against the Islanders and many of the big guns will be playing along with more lineup changes. It’s time to keep a close eye on Lafreniere, Chytil, and Kakko as it’s expected to see them take more prominent roles and increased ice time under new coach Peter Laviolette.

The Hives- The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

Music

The worst part about The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons is that it took 11 years to come out. Most bands aren’t together for that long and a gap in a discography that big makes you wonder if the band has called it quits but they didn’t tell anybody. Thankfully The Hives are forever and the wait was well worth it.

Swedish Punk is what The Hives are and what they deliver. Half an hour of power albums. Two to three-minute-long tracks stuffed with some of the catchiest riffs, often non-sensical lyrics, bombastic drum and bass, and loud and proud chanting and sing-along choruses.

Breaking out in the US in the early 2000s, The Hives had a few hit songs but never truly went mainstream here. They’ve developed a solid foundation of fans here but are much more popular in Europe. In the last decade, they’ve toured a lot–opening for large acts like Pink and Maroon 5 for stadium tours-but headline clubs and theaters. They consistently deliver high-energy and fun live shows for the entire career. I doubt you’d find anyone who wasn’t impressed by their live act even if they don’t like this genre of music. They also put out a few singles and played a few of the songs on this album live over the years. It just took whatever reason for them to finally go to the studio and record.

But enough with the past. There’s a certain comfort and joy that comes with a Hives album and Fitzsimmons is arguably one of their best. I loved their last LP, Lex Hives, and thought it’d be tough to beat. You’d never guess the gap in time was this long by listening to Fitzsimmons. Their highest energy and creativity can be found here, they haven’t lost a single step. I listen to this album from start to finish, which is pretty rare for me. In fact, this album contains two of my all-time favorite songs from any band: Smoke & Mirrors and Crash Into The Weekend. It is impossible to stay still when these vibrations come out of the speakers. These tracks are sandwiched between two other bangers, Stick Up and Two Kinds of Trouble (and The Way The Story Goes and The Bomb) which makes for a hell of a stretch of jumping and high kicks around your house, car, and possibly place of employment. All of the songs they released as singles are great and that’s only the public bite of what’s on offer. I urge everyone to give this a full spin. Even the song I like the least, What Did I Ever Do To You?, has its merits that won me over (mainly the final quarter that sports a bombastic horn section).

The best part of this album is that it is a The Hives album. They simply deliver to their fans what they want. That’s a bad thing if you don’t like The Hives because none of these 12 tracks will change your mind about them. But that makes you weird and you can go kick rocks. The rest of us will be smiling and sweating all over each other.