one minute reviews on monday

The Newsroom- This is Canadian TV from the mid 90's and you will like it. Delivered with all the rapid fire of a Lenny Bruce monologue, this series, with its dark humor and bumbling antihero, is similar to both The Office and our own, Curb Your Enthusiasm. And like the other two shows, the creator and writer of the show, in this case, Ken Finkleman, is also its main star. Racist, sexist and never the apologist, these are the men we love to hate. Perhaps a show like this couldn't survive on the air today with so many popular sendups of the news like The Daily Show, but this is a biting satire that entertains as much as it repels.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill- had the worst music of any documentary I've ever seen. If you can get past that, this is a sweet documentary about a flock of wild parrots that mysteriously thrive in middle of San Francisco and the deadbeat cum naturalist who watches over them. The birds definitely steal the show with their charm and striking personalities, and like our guide, Mark Bittner, we can't help comparing our own lives to them.

Walking on Water-Jamie and I couldn't agree on a film that we both hadn't seen and wasn't one that was playing at the local cinema in Poughkeepsie where he lives and where the woman of his dreams works. So we settled on this Israeli film, because when was the last time you saw an Israeli film? But, alas, that wasn't enough of a saving grace to redeem this picture. It was corny and implausible with a promising homoerotic subplot that never panned out.

Deadwood- The only reason I broke down and rented this was because of an absorbing article about its creator, David Milch, that was featured in The New Yorker. Milch's OCD, extreme working habits and unlikely muses made it sound like pure genius. Throw dirt on your face, scowl a lot and mumble making sure the only audible words are: fuck, cocksucker and cunt and there you have Deadwood. Because I happen to like those three words I will watch the next few episodes and see where it takes me.