“Law or order? These heroes operate in ethical gray areas - CharlotteObserver.com” plus 1 more |
| Law or order? These heroes operate in ethical gray areas - CharlotteObserver.com Posted: Posted: Sunday, Feb. 06, 2011 The arrivals this week of "The Chicago Code" and "Justified" couldn't have been timed better, and not just because these two excellent shows will cure even the worst cases of cabin fever. As it happens, they both grapple with a dilemma that is suddenly on the minds of everyone who watches the news: whether it is better to keep the peace or to be on the right side of history. Peacekeeping, as fans of FX's "Justified" know by now, is something Raylan Givens does every time he reaches for his trusty sidearm. But in this second season of last year's best new drama, Raylan is after a different kind of order and stability. It's the kind of peace that's possible only when you set down your weapon and do business with people who, by all rights, ought to be behind bars. "Justified" fans are well-acquainted with the back story: Elmore Leonard, the dean of gritty crime novelists, introduced Givens as a character for our times, a deputy U.S. marshal from the hollers of Kentucky who heads off to Miami Beach to deliver his special brand of justice to the drug kingpins there, procedure be damned. Leonard moved Raylan back home to Harlan County 10 years ago in the novella "Fire in the Hole. " Raylan couldn't turn around without bumping into someone with whom he had a morally tangled past. The story suggested myriad possibilities to Graham Yost, a writer of '90s blockbusters ("Speed," "Broken Arrow") who endeared himself to TV critics with his short-lived crime drama on NBC, "Boomtown." Such a character-rich and culturally specific premise rarely comes to TV, and Yost made sure it had a fighting chance: He took it to the edgiest network in basic cable. John Landgraf, who was running FX, had already handled one adaptation of a Leonard character, "Karen Sisco," which flopped for ABC. But the two vowed that this time things would be different, and so they are. Thanks in large part to an Emmy-worthy portrayal by Timothy Olyphant, who had previously smoldered in a cowboy hat on HBO's "Deadwood," the show quickly built a fan base that included the hard-to-please author. Leonard blessed the pilot and has actively promoted the show. He's even reviving Raylan for a new novel in 2012. To bring you up to speed, Season 1 ended with a standoff that had Raylan and local outlaw Boyd Crowder (played by the reliably wigged-out Walton Goggins) taking fire from emissaries of a Miami drug lord who had a history with them both. The two-minute-long gun battle -- replayed at the beginning of Wednesday's episode (at 10 p.m.) -- was the climax of a grand story arc that had worked its way through the full season. "Our audience really got caught up in the story in the last four episodes," Yost said. "We're going to get that big story going early on, pull out of it a little, and then come back into it." That story is wrapped around the ever-present coal industry in eastern Kentucky. For Season 2, Yost took a road trip to Lexington and Harlan County with some of his writers. Most of his team (all guys except for one) has network writing experience, and they'll take cable, thank you very much. Wendy Calhoun wrote for NBC's underrated "Life," a cop show bedeviled by the network's demand that the story keep galloping along, even if it ruined the character being developed by the show's star, Damian Lewis. "When you're working on a network procedural, it's just so straightforward," Calhoun said. "Here it's character-driven, and you can jump around from points of view." But another writer, Chris Provenazo, cautions against using the C-word with "Justified." "I came from the first season of 'Mad Men,' and that was almost strictly character-driven, no plot," Provenazo said. "The challenge here is to not be a slave to plot but to introduce indelible characters and yet meet the necessities of the cop stuff." That's not to say there won't be plenty of scenes where people just spend three minutes unspooling some of the most entertaining dialogue on television today. "There was a mandate from Graham from Day 1 that this was going to be an Elmore Leonard show," writer Benjamin Cavell said, "and it would have to have that Elmore Leonard sound." The writers were up for a Writers Guild Award this weekend, but if they hit this season out of the park again, they might be able to claim some major hardware next fall at the Emmys. "Justified" may have some competition for writing honors with "The Chicago Code," which FX's big sister Fox unveils at 9 p.m. Monday. "Code" comes to us via producer Shawn Ryan, who single-handedly vaulted FX to the top tier of cable channels in 2003 with "The Shield." What's so brilliant about "The Chicago Code" is that it's essentially "The Shield" retold from the good guys' point of view. You have your bad guy, but he's powerful, so that makes him a good guy to anyone he helps or enables. And you have people who want to take him down, but because he's president of the favored bank, you find yourself opening an account with him, just like those lowlifes he surrounds himself with. You'd love to throw the whole sleazy bunch in the clink. But for now, you get in line and bide your time. After "The Shield," Ryan co-created his first network show, "The Unit," for CBS and then toiled at "Lie to Me" on Fox. This network experience has served him well, as becomes clear from the opening scene of "The Chicago Code." It's a narrated flashback - one of those concessions to network storytelling that keeps the casual viewer from reaching for the remote - and it's told from the viewpoint of our hero, Teresa Colvin (Jennifer Beals), newly minted superintendent of the Chicago PD. Against a gorgeous lakefront view of the city we hear Beals say, "Growing up I witnessed firsthand the effects of the Chicago way." Cut to a world-weary storekeeper, circa 1980, handing over cash from his vintage register to a parade of outstretched hands: city inspectors (ka-ching!), precinct bosses (ka-ching!), protection thugs (ka-ching!). All those bribes, our hero tells us, "cost my father his store and my parents their marriage." Now, as a motorcade pulls up smartly to City Hall and Colvin emerges, we hear her say, "Finally, I am in a position of power to do something about it." If that was what actually transpired on "The Chicago Code," it would make for a very ordinary show. But Ryan's use of unreliable narrators is one of several ways he imposes his cable sensibility on the network formula to great effect. Another is his choice of villain: Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo), fixer extraordinaire and a master of the city's ethnic politics. In front of the cameras, he's one part Al Sharpton, one part legendary South Side alderman "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak. As we soon learn, Gibbons controls the police board that approved Colvin's promotion, and the ties that bind them add a dimension to his character as well as hers. After all, if your connections help an ally do some good in the world, doesn't that mean you're doing good, too? This shady reasoning may work for him (and us), but Colvin wants him out anyway. So she enlists a trustworthy cop she knows, Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke of Showtime's "Brotherhood"). Lifelong Chicagoan that he is, he thinks she's nuts to challenge the old order. "I can't fix the city's plumbing, and neither can you," he tells her. "One toilet at a time, Detective," Colvin fires back. More than that would spoil the twists, turns and pleasures of this unexpectedly strong network drama. So we return to "Justified" and find that for Season 2 it has reloaded with new story lines, characters and intrigues, not just for Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens but also for his boyhood friend turned nemesis, Boyd. Despite trying to kill each other in the pilot, the two men became allies over the course of Season 1 and were on the same side in the crucial gun battle in last year's finale. "Justified" creator Yost is well aware that Boyd and Raylan have, as they say in Middle East diplomacy, a special relationship. And he doesn't want to abuse it. In practical terms, this means Boyd fades into the hills for a while as Raylan fraternizes with the new cast members. But selling these early episodes short would be like underestimating Raylan's reflexes. Yost and his writing team have created a rich new dynasty in the Bennetts, longtime Harlanites who avoid trouble with the law because, in their neck of the woods, they are the law. Heading up the clan is matriarch Mags Bennett, played by the ever-versatile Margo Martindale, most recently seen in NBC's "Mercy" and Showtime's "Dexter." Mags runs the convenience store, serves up a tasty apple-pie-flavored moonshine and grows the weed that keeps the family solvent. Without picking up a pistol, she is every bit as lethal as Crowder and his clan were last season. So this sets up a very tantalizing future for the "Justified" viewer: Which of Raylan's alliances will give him the most trouble? Will it be Mags, whom he knows from childhood and whose company he clearly enjoys? Will it be Boyd, who soon enough will come roaring back into the picture? Or will it be the two women in Raylan's life, including his former wife, Winona (Natalie Zea), who emerges from a roll in the sack with her ex and says, "Looking at your closet, one would think you were a simple man." Simple men don't get things done in the real world. In "Justified" and "Chicago Code" we have two fictions that ring all too true, with compromised heroes for complicated times. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Egypt police want slain colleagues honored as heroes - Los Angeles Times Posted: Reporting from Cairo — Egypt's long-feared and widely hated national police marched onto the hallowed ground of Tahrir Square on Monday, sparking outrage by insisting that police officers allegedly killed by anti-government forces during the uprising should be honored as heroes.Egyptians still celebrating their Friday victory over deposed President Hosni Mubarak stood in stunned silence when hundreds of police blocked traffic in the square, chanting slogans and waving posters bearing the images of eight dead colleagues. Many wore their standard garb: black uniforms, black berets, black boots and black sunglasses. But angry jeering erupted from those not prepared to offer instant redemption after suffering decades of state-sponsored police brutality and corruption, including the deaths of an estimated 300 protesters during the 18-day revolt. The shouting and counter-protests grew so heated that soldiers rushed over to restore calm. "You are thieves! You are killers!" one woman screamed from the curb, her face contorted in anger. "Go home and leave us alone!" The face-off marks a key fault line as Egypt struggles to emerge from an autocracy that used torture, arbitrary arrests and unchecked police power against its own people: How can those who suffered such abuses reconcile with the most visible agents of state repression? Bridging the divide will be crucial if Egypt is to avoid further turmoil in the uncertain period ahead. The military council now in charge has pledged to hold free elections within six months, but has left the old government — including an estimated 1.4 million police, state security and internal intelligence officers — in place. The challenge comes as the army seeks to revive an economy crippled by the revolt and stem a series of labor strikes that have disrupted private industries and government institutions, including police and transportation systems. Egypt's labor unions have never aligned themselves with political opposition groups, and strikes are common. But labor groups have tried to take advantage of the last three weeks of unrest by stepping up their demands. Appearing on state TV Monday, a military spokesman warned that strikes "in this crucial time lead to negative consequences." He called on labor groups and management to stop the disruptions, to "create the right atmosphere … until we transfer leadership to a civilian-elected authority." The army also faced new pressure from a coalition of 13 young activists who played a major role in the anti-Mubarak protests. In its first news conference, they called on the military council to dismiss the senior ministers whom Mubarak named on Jan. 28 and appoint a new Cabinet. The Mubarak team that was "the main cause of anger and frustration of the people that led to this revolution shouldn't continue its duties even if just for the transitional period," said Shady El Ghazali, who represents one of the five pro-democracy groups in the coalition. Coalition members, who met with top military officers for the first time Sunday night, said they also demanded an end to the 30-year-old emergency decrees that permit arbitrary arrest and detention. They also want the release of political prisoners and a law allowing political parties to form. The military announced Sunday that it had issued orders to dissolve parliament and suspend the 1971 constitution until it can be amended. But the coalition said a new parliament should draft a new constitution to provide a solid foundation for a multiparty democracy. "There is no such thing as amending an invalid constitution," said Nasser Abdel Hamid, a member of the coalition. The group said it would meet military leaders again Wednesday. Under Mubarak, "torture and police brutality are endemic and widespread," according to a 2009. U.S. Embassy cable released by WikiLeaks. The cable cites estimates of "literally hundreds of torture incidents every day in Cairo police stations alone." One notorious case became a catalyst for the revolt that ousted Mubarak. In June in Alexandria, 28-year-old Khaled Said was beaten to death by police, according to witnesses, apparently after he posted a video online that showed policemen dividing up drugs seized in a bust. Photos of Said's body bearing gruesome injuries were posted on Facebook and became a rallying point for protest organizers. The Arabic-language Facebook page, "We are all Khaled Said," has more than 800,000 "likes." The police demonstrations began Sunday, when a group demanding higher wages, pensions and better working conditions gathered outside Cairo's fortress-like Interior Ministry, headquarters for internal security. The protests expanded Monday to demand deference for eight colleagues who police said were killed when anti-government protesters sacked and burned police stations in several cities. Those attacks came after government forces opened fire on protesters in Tahrir Square, killing 24 demonstrators. Many of the protesting police insisted the dead officers deserved the same public respect and veneration as the slain protesters, who have been hailed as national heroes. "These men are martyrs too," said Mohamed Sayed, a 19-year police veteran, using a term that carries special significance for Muslims. "The police who died in the revolution should be honored," agreed Hasem Abdul Haidi, a nine-year veteran. "They served their country." In addition, he said police acted nobly when they abandoned their posts at banks, government facilities and traffic intersections early in the revolt. Looting and arson followed. "We withdrew from the streets, which was better than making a massacre," Abdul Haidi said. "We served the revolution too." Few people on Tahrir Square showed any sympathy or support for the police. Some were aghast. Many were infuriated. "They are not martyrs!" Ahmad Abdel Rahman, a chef, shouted angrily as police paraded by, waving the posters of their dead colleagues. "They are cruel people who oppressed us. We only suffered from them." "I'll tell you why people attacked the police stations," agreed Ahmed Gomar, 22, a waiter. "There is no money, no gold. Only the police are there, and the people hate them." Amro Hassan of The Times' Cairo Bureau contributed to this report. 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