A Man. And His Blog.

Starz's remake of the 2004 movie aired in late 2009

Don’t confuse this little TV series with the British half-hour dramedy show about young doctors, which I reviewed a few months back, this is the remake of the 2004 same-named movie.

Los Angeles. In this city, it’s dangerous to have a dream but impossible not to follow one. And that constant pursuit of the unattainable will make the most unlikely characters connect and collide in a diverse social mosaic. From chance encounters to dramatic interactions, L.A. is the fuel that can change lives forever.
The second season of “Crash” features a mix of individuals from very different sides of the city. Among the new cast members are Eric Roberts as Seth, a billionaire entrepreneur; Linda Park as Maggie, Seth’s beautiful wife; Dana Ashbrook playing Jimmy, a charismatic gambler; and Jake McLaughlin as Bo, a former pitching ace.
Returning cast members include Dennis Hopper as the newly-sober Ben Cendars; Jocko Sims as Anthony, Ben’s reluctant ally; Ross McCall as Kenny, a security guard looking for a second chance; and Moran Atias as Inez, now the hostess of an exclusive men’s club.

Episode 01: You Set the Scene
A good season opener and more promising than most parts of the first seasons. I just hope the writers didn’t do the same mistakes again like in season one and did not introduce us to characters in the first episode who will be in the main cast later.
The interesting characters came back, even though I surely can do it without Inez. She was just part of Kenny’s problems last season and now she has an own storyline? Well, ironically her story was the least interesting one, but I don’t know if I want to see the Inez/Kenny drama again, because her new boyfriend Jimmy is just a stereotype character, boring as hell and I hope he is gone very fast.
Ben’s and Anthony’s story was alright, just a setup to Ben’s revenge plans (this will be interesting though, because when the writers handle with clichés, the murderer of his daughter is probably somebody from the main or recurring cast). Kenny’s story wasn’t really interesting, because I knew his plans to get back to is ex-wife Amy (Heather Mazur) will be part of the story. And now he has a story with Seth, who has seen God (awkward story). The rest is pretty much at the beginning and uninteresting yet, and I hope the writers don’t fuck that up and make the same mistakes again.
I miss the character drama though, and the long title intro (I loved it), but for the start I was well entertained. 7,5/10

Read the rest of this entry »

From the producers of the Academy Award®-winning Best Motion Picture, “Crash” is a provocative 13-episode drama series, which premiered on Starz October 17th, 2008. Starring an ensemble cast led by film icon Dennis Hopper, the series looks at the way different lives intersect and collide in the melting pot of Los Angeles.

Episode 01: Crash Many characters and a lot of story involving them. I don’t know if I can take Dennis Hopper very seriously and I missed a main plot. But not that much. It was the first episode; I never watched the movie (so I cannot compare the series with it) and maybe there is a story coming. But I liked it a lot. After I read in many forums, that they are hating this show I ask myself: why? The characters are very well written and the actors did their job great. 8/10

Episode 02: The Doctor Is In I am confused. In the summer I watched the two leaked episodes. Now the story of this episode changed a lot. It is like they shot a completely new episode. Where is the story of Cesar (Luis Chávez), who immigrates to the US? It is completely missing. And Axel (Nick Tarabay) was shot. In the leaked episode he wasn’t.
Great episode with a great cliffhanger. Some scenes were confusing (like the sex scene in the car, this was curious). But I now know why like this series. Completely on location, great characters, great stories and a great score. 8,5/10

Episode 03: Panic Finally the story about Cesar started, I missed that already. I don’t know why the producers re-edited the first two/three episodes – why beginning a completely new storyline in the third episode, after you got to all of the characters in the first two? I loved Christine (Clare Carey) in that episode, it almost looked like she wanted to fuck the architect and screw her husband. Maybe it will happen in one of the later episodes, because she is onto that. She wants to “crash” her husband. In this case I really like the character. But I don’t know what to do about Ben. Dennis Hopper is a great actor, but his character is so confuse… I don’t know anything about him, from time to time he is a crazy lunatic (without the drugs) and then a careful father figure for Anthony (Jocko Sims). The rest was average. 7/10

Episode 04: Railroaded What I realized in this episode: I don’t know all the names of the main characters. I know Axel, Kenny (Ross McCall), Ben and Anthony – but the rest? Either I forgot the names already or they never were mentioned. And there is the next problem: I can’t feel with the characters. Maybe for Christine, because I like her and she didn’t do any shit until now; she just wants to fuck her architect.
So, Axel loves Bebe (Arlene Tur) and Bebe loves Axel and they are telling each other. And Axel wants to divorce his wife. Besides the story of Christine this was the second interesting story of the episode, the rest was just plain boring. Kenny and his “girlfriend” Inez (Moran Atiaz) are fucking their brains out (he has some funny lines though), but his story isn’t going anywhere. Eddie (Brian Tee) … Well, he just had a little conversation with his grandma. And what was with Cesar? He was completely missing in this episode. He is a main character and was seen in just one episode until now. That is a little bit… lame. 5,5/10

Episode 05: Your Ass Belongs to the Gypsies I don’t know what to think of that. Somehow it was bad, because nothing happened, except Kenny’s storyline; somehow it was good, because I like the actors and their characters. So the Doctor (John Walcutt) is dead, fine, but I already knew that from the screener (he was supposed to die in the second episode); Cesar’s storyline doesn’t get forward a bit, it was better the way the producers did it in the screener. Why did they change everything? From the “Previously on” clip I couldn’t bring one of the scenes into my mind, because I couldn’t remember if this was actually in one of the previous episodes. And Anthony is fired? So this was all for nothing? Either the past 5 episodes are or the complete story of this episode… And the series is concentrating too much on Kenny’s storyline, which could be boring after a few episodes. Eddie was missing, Axel was missing, Bebe had nothing to do, Christine wants a divorce… Well, this wasn’t a great episode. 4,5/10

Episode 06: Clusterfuck Finally an episode with a real arc in it. Again no Cesar in this episode, just two scenes with Eddie, who has a crappy storyline at the moment. And finally the storyline doesn’t concentrate that much on Kenny – I hope his Gypsie story is really over now, because that was too much in the last episodes.
I liked the conflict between Anthony and his family, it was very well written, and maybe there is coming more. This is the first season arc with a lot of potential character wise. Hopefully the series finds itself in the second half. But after I read some comments, I don’t think so. Nevertheless a good episode. 8/10

Episode 07: Los Muertos Pretty much a stand alone episode, when you cut out Cesar’s storyline. So, Anthony drives Ben to an old friend to get him clean from the drugs and to get over the Doc’s death. It is a boring storyline, because I didn’t care much about Ben (his character is too crazy to be real and authentic), but the tip of the iceberg were the hallucination scenes – totally bad and totally confusing.
More interesting was Cesar’s storyline. Finally the producers tell his story with much more speed and I liked it. Okay, he just walked through the desert, but it was still interesting for me. A great scene when he stands in front of the fence, looking back, kissing his medallion and going through – great characteristics. The rest of the characters were missing. 7/10

Episode 08: Three Men and a Bebe It seems that the episodes are concentrating on one or two, maybe three characters and have the rest either not in it or they are just side issues. This time Bebe, Cesar and Kenny. So Cesar is now in the US and has to deal with the police. He tells Bebe the story of his life, which gives the opportunity to cut all the scenes in, which were in the originally pilot episode (the one who had Cesar’s storyline in it and wasn’t cut out like in these first two episodes). That was a good move. I think everything, what was cut out, was used in this episode. And Bebe herself has to deal with Cesar’s story, her life with Axel and Kenny, who is now moving in with her after he was thrown out by his wife. His confession scenes were pretty amazing, well written and well acted by Ross McCall. And it gives Kenny the chance, to get the viewers more into his character. I never see him like that before and I liked him that way.
So, we had a scene with Eddie, a little bit Axel, a lot of Cesar, Bebe and Kenny – the rest was missing (again).
I like the fact that the series is starting to concentrate more on single characters, so there are no episodes with overfilled stories and/or characters. 8,5/10

Episode 09: Pissing in the Sandbox An average episode with story arcs which finally were picked up. Eddie’s little storyline about his Korean gang history, hinted in the first two episodes, is back and rolling fast. The investigation against Axel… finally rolling with guest star Tom Sizemore. He was the eye catcher in this episode and the rest was pretty average. But where the hell are Christine and Cesar? Christine is missing for the third episode in a row (is she still part of any kind of story, especially after we saw her pregnant sister in this one again?) and Cesar is missing again, after he could escape from the police with Bebe’s help… Is his story over, too? It is kinda scary not to know, when a story arc is over and when it isn’t. Any kind of hint from the authors would be nice :/ 6,5/10

Episode 10: The Future is Free Naah, that was nothing. No real storyline for all of the characters, except Cooper. Even Kenny’s storyline is just repeating itself, the only thing, that was new, was his suspension. It is nice to see Christine and Cesar again, after they were AWOL the last couple episodes. But for what? We know that Christine’s husband faked his death or is really dead – an information, which could have come sooner. And Cesar started to work – that would be great, when this happened earlier, like in the last episode.
Just boring. 4,5/10

Episode 11: F-36, Sprint Left, T-4 The magic of the first episodes is completely gone now. The characters don’t develop anymore, the stories become more and more boring and with every episode we have more less storylines. The authors concentrated too much on the cop stories and forgot everything else (except Ben, just because Dennis Hopper is the main actor of the show). So, Cesar and Christine are missing again in this episode… Why are they still in the main cast, when there is absolutely nothing to do for them. Especially Christine was very interesting in the beginning and now there is nothing.
Still the best and interesting character in these episodes is Cooper, and he is just a guest character. Tom Sizemore did some good work here and finally it was discovered who did shoot Axel – or not? 5/10

Episode 12: Ring Dings A little bit better than the last episode, but I still don’t like how the show evolves. It started with great stories and characteristics, now it is down to two (or three) parallel stories and characters full of stereotypes. Kenny’s story is good again, though his problems with his wife and Inez are still repeating itself. But finally Inez is becoming a real nasty bitch. Axel’s story is coming to a good finale, even though it went off a bit too fast. Cooper didn’t find out what happened in the last three episodes and now he gets it in two seconds? That is just a set-up for the season finale.
Cesar and Christine missing again, some great characters the authors are wasting there… 6/10

Episode 13: The Pain Won’t Stop Hm, this was the finale, huh? Didn’t feel like it, because nothing really happened. Ben’s conflict with his old friend is just lame, Axel finally got caught, Kenny got beaten up by the Gypsie gang (that must have happened in one of the earlier episodes, this was just too late), but the rest? We see Christine and Cesar in two scenes – not much of an ending in their storyline, but after all they had their last scenes. And what is with Eddie? Is he now back with his old gang, after he got through to medical school? His last scene looked like a cliffhanger for his character, and I don’t know if that is appropriate.
Too average for a season finale, but I liked the beginning of the episode. 6,5/10

Season average is 6,58.
Starz renewed Crash for a second season and the producer said something about cutting some characters, because their stories could not be told anymore. Besides Dennis Hopper, who is in the next season for sure, I would like to see Jocko Sims, Clare Carey, Arlene Tur and Tom Sizemore in it. I don’t care about the rest.