Family Feuds

I am really enjoying The History Channel's presentation of Hatfields and McCoys. I have only watched the first 2 hour episode, but I am looking forward to the remaining two episodes. It is very well done and I am surprised by my like for this series in a few critical ways. 

First, Kevin Costner cannot act any more than Lindsay Lohan can do complex physics. He is roundly terrible. He has been in some movies that are amazing in spite of his efforts to ruin them completely with his wooden subtlety.

Second, Bill Paxton cannot act, and in fact is a worse actor than Kevin Costner, which is really like hitting rock bottom at full speed, picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and digging for a new bottom. Only Keanu Reeves could possibly compete for a worse male actor than either Costner or Paxton.

In these roles, these guys pop. I am shocked that they are so dialed into their roles and they are both pitch perfect in them. I don't know if it is the story, or direction or what, but they have both come alive on screen and are very good.

The action is intense and the story tellers have done a magnificent job opening with a scene of a Civil War battle before all the doins transpired that show Hatfield and McCoy fighting shoulder to shoulder, saving each other from defeat and certain death. It is from this lofty brotherhood that these two men fall into the abyss of hatred that conspires to create the now infamous and long-standing feud between their two clans.

I don't know if this story as it's told is completely accurate. I was unaware of the nuances of the decline in relations between these families. But I don't really care in the end, because the storytelling is amazing. It is actually riveting. It is gut tying, hand wringing, me-oh-my stuff.

My only criticism of the cinematic aspect is that both Paxton and Costner look pretty well past their primes as the show opens in 1863. Are we to believe that they looked 60 in their 20s and in their 50s? I know times were tough, but even the frontier needs a good makeup lady to fill in those deep grooves.

That aside, the sets and the costumes and the shots are all superb and lend a big hand to moving the story along. The casting is really genius with Tom Berenger, Mare Winningham and Jena Malone rounding out the big name cast, and some really amazing fresh faces to support them.

I love ensembles and this one works. I love epic stories and this one is epic.

So, DVR Hatfields and McCoys. Pop some corn, or pour some white lightning, skip past the commercials and enjoy. You won't be sorry.
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Survey Says!

RIP to Richard Dawson, Icon of my childhood who by watching Family Feud each night at 7:00 pm taught me that kissing girls was really where it's at, and that it is good to know all the answers before you ask the questions.

I appreciated Dawson's reactions to the funny things his contestant said. This was also shown in his Match Game persona, where he could always be counted on to quip the right quip at the right time to make someone's funny joke even funnier.

Dawson would put people at ease and pick out the slightest little thing they said and make it something classic. He was not unlike Carson in this regard.

I am visited by many wonderful memories of my childhood each time one of these men and women of the 1970's TV landscape age and pass on. And that is a positive legacy. After all, Richard Dawson may be deceased, but through the miracle of recorded media, he is not dead.