Wii are Family

[captainsblog]

Season Four of Nurse Jackie premiered next week. It was quite good.

That makes no sense? Tell me about it.  Showtime decided to put a full-length copy of the season premiere out on the Interwebs a full week before it goes out over the network. I can understand them wanting the pub, especially with all this Mad Men hype I've been hearing, but they could've put the episode out on their on-demand channel on the TV, as well, so (a) we didn't have to shlep the computer out to the living room and (b) we could've seen and heard the entire unedited ep. 

Granted, the edits didn't amount to much- a small segment of one scene was pixellated and a popup said



(Yo, preacher; we're in the choir. And we're not so stupid that we don't know what you're hiding behind those pixels.)

Beyond that, all they did was cut out all the f-bombs- which was fine, since they don't define the characters on this show the way they did Jackie's former husband Tony, or Dexter's sister for that matter. Still, I'll probably record the premiere in all its fuckiness when it comes out this Sunday night.

By far, though, the best scene in the show is one feeding off of the fact that Kevin and Jacks's kids got a Wii. I will not spoil, or even set up the context, but it's one of the most powerful presentations I've ever seen of how technology works- and doesn't work- in our intra-family relationships.

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On a more serious subject involving F-bombs:

Movie mogul (and former UB student and local concert promoter) Harvey Weinstein has failed in his effort to get the MPAA to overturn their R rating for Bully when it goes into release next month. In response to their decision to release it unrated, Regal Cinemas, the largest chain in the country (and around here), stated they will nonetheless treat it like an R and keep kids under 17 from seeing it unless accompanied by a parent.  (Their main competition in these parts, AMC, said they would allow the younguns to see it unaccompanied, but only if a parent signs a permission slip.)

If you haven't heard the story of this film, longtime film critic Marshall Fine tells some of it here.  A story that now includes the unfortunate fact that a bunch of prissy schoolmarms at the MPAA have censored its target audience out of the stadium seating because, in his words, "several kids in the film are captured on film saying the word  'fuck.' Needless to say, kids of all ages have heard it -- and are probably using it regularly, whether their parents know it or not. Who is the MPAA protecting?"

If I had to bet money, I'd think they're protecting their fellow prudes at places like Focus on the Family and the National Organizaion for Marriage- two badly-named and badly-intended hate groups who would never want to see gay bullying end because when it ends, they end.  It's all the more egregious at a time when the movie world is all agog about Hunger Games- a film that features, you could even say glorifies, the combative and ritualistic murder of children by children. THAT got a PG-13, and Regal will gladly take money from your 10-year-old if he or she walks in unaccompanied to watch it.  Not Bully, though. Got to protect those little ears.

And if you think that makes sense on any level, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Or, if you prefer, a slightly used Wii in Queens.