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When Television Needs A Specialist : Enter John C. McGinley

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John C. McGinley has been involved with some spectacular films and television shows; from Platoon to Scrubs. He was classically trained in theater with a range of talent from dramatic to eccentrically comedic and is now involved in the final season of the hit NBC comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

John joins the cast playing the NYPD union head, Frank O’Sullivan, who has a penchant for the beat cops in blue. McGinley was brought in to handle some very tough issues as the comic foil for Diaz, Peralta and Holt in the nine nine.

courtesy NBC Universal

 

 

 

 

 

TME: Thank you so much for making time today. I absolutely loved watching you. Four years of big and small screens. Of course, when I think back on Scrubs, I mostly think of Dr. Cox and the heart of the show, walking an amazing line of drama and comedy. I feel Scrubs walked that and showed a depth of writing and a trust, plus a solidness of the ensemble.  Brooklyn Nine-Nine carries that same kind of thing forward. Can you talk a little bit about joining such a tight cast? Do you feel when you would watch guest stars like Michael J. Fox come aboard Scrubs and think, well, you better bring your A game, buddy?

JCM: Well, I think both shows are so well drawn on the page.  With Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dan Goor is the executive producer and he’s responsible for the words on the page… with Scrubs, it was Billy Lawrence, who now has another hit for Ted Lasso.

And with TV, because there’s so little time and everything is is such a 10000 pounds of pressure on your back, if it’s not on the page at the beginning of the day, it’s not going to work out, because if you presuppose that someone’s going to walk on the set and be able to pull rabbits out of the hat like Jonathan Winters or or Robin Williams or Jim Carrey, those people don’t exist. They’re those three people. So unless there’s a road map every morning that that can be provided to the actors, which is the script, you don’t have a ghost of a chance.

And so what Billy and Dan did respectively with their shows is they put that mix of heart and comedy on the page, which is so rare and so impossible. And when it comes across your desk, you just want to jump on it.

That’s what happened with me with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Not that my character has even a shred of heart, but will show does my dignity. Frank Sullivan, who’s the head of the policemen’s union in in Brooklyn, nine nine.

And in this in this time of BLM and George Floyd’s horrible, horrible travesty, I think Dan had to straddle a tricky line. So much so that I think that prior to my coming on for the eighth season, I think they shot a bunch of shows and then threw them out because I I could only speculate that something must have been a little slippery and I wouldn’t pretend to know what it was. So when this was sent to me in the middle of February, when we were shoulder deep in the pandemic, I was thrilled.  I was absolutely thrilled. But Dan was so concerned with straddling and being sensitive to the different challenges and awareness that are present today. I think he re-shot about four episodes, and that’s the only reason I was brought on. I think they were going on a certain track that certainly didn’t include me. And when they retooled, I was provided with an opportunity to participate.

courtesy of NBC Universal

TME: If Dr. Cox was harsh, but with a heart of gold, Frank is harsh with the heart of symmetrically weird.

JCM: No, he’s he’s harsh with a heart of blue, always blue. And the way Dan wrote him; he doesn’t see men or women, black or white. He doesn’t see any religion. He sees blue as in the police union in New York, as specifically the rank and file, which are cops, not detectives.

Courtesy of NBC Universal

When someone like Andre’s character or Andy’s character or any of them in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, they’re all detectives… they’re fair game. That’s where that conflict starts to pay dividends, because I’m looking out for blue.  And they’re in pursuit of other things. And I could care less what they’re in pursuit of. All I care about is delivering for blue.

Courtesy of NBC Universal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TME: You’ve famously played a corrupt cop over on Chicago PD.

JCM: Yeah. Kelton was very different. Kelton was an exercise in ambition. And  I don’t know if that’s Frank O’Sullivan’s thing, because  I talked to my friend Kevin McCabe, who was a deputy mayor under David Dinkins and is an unbelievable resource for all things New York cops and politics.  When you’ve become the head of the the PBA, the Policemen’s Benevolent Association, or the policemen’s union, you’ve reached the peak years.

That’s as good as it gets. No one has gone on to become mayor. No one. This is it. You’ve reached it. Whatever your ambition was, you’ve achieved it. Now, with Kelton on on Chicago PD, I think this was a guy who obviously on the page, he had set his sights on being mayor and then had to set his sights on probably being governor, maybe senator. This was a this was an exercise in ambition. That goalpost was going to move.

So many times actors are trained to look for what is  the redemption in the character… what grounds, the character and some good. And with Kelton, it was about ambition. It wasn’t reconciling those which gave us license to just go…  just an ambition driven political beast.  And he was grounded in that with no apologies. O’Sullivan is a totally different character, totally different and grounded in comedy.

TME: So in going from from reading him on the page in February to to working out the real physical man in front of the camera, can you talk a little bit about the growth; the back and forth of that?

JCM: Well, I worked with Dan Goor a lot, and he allowed me to provide most of the input I just shared with you in shaping this character.

The first thing I sent him was a picture on one page of of my notebooks of Archie Bunker and Yosemite Sam. I use these notebooks for my homework. Every film I’ve ever done down in the rehearsal space.There’s about eight of these four movies and about 400 episodes of TV.  And they function as both work tablets and  as diaries. And in that one, the first thing I sent him was Archie Bunker meets Yosemite Sam, and he fell off his chair on the zoom call. We went from there and it was just a very classically drawn comic foil for Andy’s character and Andre’s character.  Remember, they weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel. In a in a newly found picked up Season eight. The show was canceled.  Billy did the opposite with Scrubs.  He did reinvent the wheel. And it didn’t quite yield the dividends he was looking for, but it was a brave attempt. With Brooklyn Nine-Nine, what Dan did, I thought, brilliantly played to the ensemble’s strength.

So he did not try to exorcise any ghosts or demons that had been in the background, out of frame for seven seasons. He went solidly into each character strength and wrote to those strengths and to bring me in to get in the way of those strengths, at least for Andre.

And Andy’s character was just so solid. It was like a metronome. It was great on rhythm. That’s what I got ready to do. I’m very much a rhythm player. Billy Lawrence and Oliver Stone have written the best for my for my mouth, and Dan wrote beautifully for the way I  approach the script. When somebody called action, I was fully loaded and ready to go. Plus, I haven’t had that much time to get ready for something in forever. I mean, I had about a month to get ready for this thing.

Because my episodes were spread out, I got all these genius rewrites. And if you give me time, I can pretty much do the phone book. I then get rid of it. But I had time on this to just create an enormous amount of chaos.

TME: So often you embody a character so completely that they just become iconic for me and I can never tell when something was written for you or when, you know, there’s something written fo another guy that could have been it.  Was this an audition process or did Dan have your voice in mind to start with?

 JCM: (laugs) There was no audition.  This was just sent to me and it was a straight offer. When I read it, I didn’t want to play a not fun role. O’Sullivan is the exact opposite. He’s a  banquet of eccentricities. I feel like with O’Sullivan,  the writers had a closet on a in the writers room at a Brooklyn Nine-Nine with all the different eccentricities that that they’d never been able to imbue with, with different characters in the ensemble and guest stars over the years. They took it out and they shook it into a glass and it was Frank O’Sullivan. How do you get a Billy Joel fanatic when you see what a fanatic is? You’re not going to believe it. It’s genius…  who lives in his mother’s basement,  who hosts an NHL podcast about the islanders, global islanders talk and only serves one thing.

He serves the men and women of his union… And he’s good at it, which is really fun. The worst thing that happens is he gets in his own way, which is always genius. But there are times when you’re paying  ping pong or tennis and it’s all just volleys right at the net. There are scenes with Andre and myself and Andy or just with Andre and I, where it’s just volleys at the net. And it’s that syncopation that someone as skilled as Andre can execute without verbal static like  “ummm” or a’s and “I mean”, or a “you know”, or the things that drive me insane.

Just the clean text and…  that’s thrilling. On most sets, it’s hard to find a thrill. And when you can just volley at net, just that syncopation of of really choppy balls and everyone’s talking as fast  as Marty Scorsese… it’s just flying. And you already know you’re going to see how the editors are going to cut it. To be able to do that with Andre and Andy, to some extent, that was thrilling.

TME: I loved the  comeback on the steps with Diaz and Peralta when Frank says my mom, lives with me in her house and just moves right at it kind of quickness back and forth is brilliant. And  the projects that you’ve picked, you can see that love of language.

JCM: I mean, getting to do Mamet on stage, a greatest experience of my life.

TME:When when you look at things you’re enjoying right now, I always feel like you have a great year for projects and talent. I remember seeing the the Jack Bull or so.  I remember watching that on HBO at the time and just falling in love with it. When you’re looking around at things now, you’d said you liked Brooklyn. Is there anything else that that just really catches? Anybody else writing right now that’s just blowing you away?

JCM: I think what Billy’s doing with Ted Lasso is fantastic. I’m a TV junkie and of course, now I’m not to remember anything. Fauda !

In Fauda, you found out about cops and robbers in Israel and Palestine with that Israeli ensemble. I can’t recommend it highly enough to you. Lior Raz is abulldog of a of an actor who’s just fantastic…  Which is a heck of a thing to say. Brooklyn Nine Nine just feels like the rock stars of of comedy right now, getting to watch them take a victory lap eighth season. To wonder for a year how they were going to handle things and now get to be so involved in it is just absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait to see the season unfold.

I thought the second episode, which I had not seen… I haven’t seen a frame of the thing. So I only saw what I saw last week because I didn’t do any looping. It was thrilling to watch it last Thursday. And then to see those guys go out to that cabin, the second episode of that ensemble, so watertight.

TME:   I had a similar feeling in Ted Lasso. Every time I get to watch a little bit more Brooklyn Nine-Nine you’re just glad to see these players be in a room together. And I agree.  You’re an absolutely brilliant choice to add as a foil for this. Thank you so much for making time to talk about it with me.

Brooklyn Nine Nine airs Thursdays on NBC 8pm/7 central

You can tag them and live tweet them on twitter using #B99 #Brooklyn99 or #NineNine or #Brooklyn 99

You can also follow the show on their social media on IG,Facebook and Twitter @nbcbrooklyn99

You can follow John on twitter @JohnCMcGinley and follow his fanclub

@jcmfanclub on Twitter

@johncmcginleyfanclub on IG and Facebook

 

 

 

 

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Dune Part Two: The Lisan Al Gaib comes for you!

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Welcome back to our struggle for control of the known universe already in progress, the continuation of the journey of Paul Atreides from exile to Emperor, Dune Part Two

So when we last left our intrepid if dubious heroes, House Atreides had been betrayed and virtually destroyed, by a combination of House Harkonnens surprise attacks and the added treachery of Emperor Shaddam and his Sardaukar. Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), the last surviving heir (so far) of House Atreides and his mother Jessica, have taken refuge on the desert planet of Arrakis amongst the indigenous Fremen, and as far as most are aware, the other remnants of House Atreides are dead as well. And here is where we catch up with everyone, as the struggle for Atreides emergence and dominance begins in earnest! 

The Emperor’s daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) is known for her many skills, but her copious note-taking and writings on the large events shaping her world come to the forefront as she takes counsel with her father amidst games of chance on their homeworld. Her life is one of luxury and privilege but alas, Irulan is a trained Bene Gesserit and is well aware that in all likelihood, she will be used as a pawn in the marriage games empires have to go through. Bet she never imagined it could be to a House everyone swore had been utterly destroyed. 

Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Paul is trying to integrate himself into the Fremen way of life, which is admittedly far different from the life he led back on the Atreides homeworld of Caladan. (If nothing else, Caladan has vast oceans.) The Fremen are fiercely independent, gloriously strong fighters, survivors who dare to ride and revere the giant sandworms that inhabit their planet that they call Shai-Hulud, and rightfully distrustful of outsiders. After all, the previous stewardship of Arrakis belonged to House Harkonnen, known for their cruelty and glee at hunting Fremen and torturing their victims, sometimes for weeks at a time. But Paul won his and Jessicas way into the Fremen by fair combat against Jamis, and if nothing else, the Fremen are firm in their beliefs of the old ways. 

Or rather, the elder Fremen are, most particularly the famed Fedaykin fighter and Naib (leader) of Sietch Tabr Stilgar (Javier Bardem) is adamant in his unshakable belief that Paul is the foretold Lisan Al Gaib, the Voice from the Outer World, that will lead the Fremen to peace and paradise. Stilgar’s steadfast belief in Paul’s potential only grows, and he manages with just that to convince a great many of the other Fremen elders. The younger generation of Fremen however, of which Paul’s beloved Chani (Zendaya) is a part, generally scoff at the legends of otherworldly prophets and Arrakis as a fabled green, wet heaven. In the beginning, Paul himself swears he doesn’t want to be the Messiah, only a Fremen fighter amongst the rest of them, hundreds of years of the Missionaria Protectiva, the Bene Gesserit practice of spreading useful religious propaganda as seeds on various planets, is working double-time against him. It doesn’t help that Paul’s mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) is expounding on that myth as much as she possibly can. 

And why would she do that? Survival yes, but also, Jessica is a thoroughly trained Bene Gesserit and knows of plans within plans within plans. Jessica also has many secrets of her own, and one very important one happens to be that she’s pregnant with Paul’s sister. The Bene Gesserit bodily control may be something out of legend, but even Jessica, possibly Reverend Mother Mohiam’s best and most fractious student, will have trouble with the trial the Fremen are insisting she go through to become truly one of them. The Reverend Mother equivalent of Sietch Tabr, known as their Sayyadina, is old and dying, and the Fremen have to have a Reverend Mother. Jessica tells Paul this much and explains that each culture is different in their trial to become a Reverend Mother, so she honestly doesn’t know what to expect. The reality happens to be worse than she could’ve imagined – Jessica must drink the Water of Life, a deadly poison that comes from Shai-Hulud (sort of), and come out the other side of it. And Jessica manages to do it, barely, with almost all of the consequences going to the poor fetus in her womb, the girl that will grow to become Alia Atreides, an insane legend in her own right. But for now, the unnamed fetus is awake and aware and full of the memories of generations of Bene Gesserit women that came before her – before she was even born

Paul participates in razzia raids amongst the Fremen as they work to take out the spice mining operations of the Harkonnens, immerses himself in the vastly different desert culture of his chosen people, and perhaps most importantly, his romance with his beloved Chani only grows stronger. After declaring his desire to join the fierce fighter elites amongst the Fremen known as Fedaykin, Paul is told by Stilgar that he must summon and ride one of the giant sandworms, the embodiment of Shai-Hulud where the Fremen get their terrible tooth Crysknives from. And after much sendup, in a glorious scene of blinding sand and huge monstrous killer worm-riding, Paul is triumphant and riding atop the sacred creature, his Maker hooks set properly to control the great beast, waving at great distance to his fellow Fremen as Chani looks on in bemusement. 

But that’s all external, and inside Paul is beginning to become divided on what he wants to do. As Jessica pushes the Protectiva hard amongst the women and priestesses of the Fremen, she is also pushing her son to become much larger than he ever wanted to be, if nothing else a conqueror can take revenge for the destruction of House Atreides and the death of her beloved Duke Leto. Paul may have earned his place amongst the Fremen and been given new names – Usul, meaning the strength of the base of the pillar, as his private name within the Sietch; and Muad’Dib, from the small mouse survivor of the desert, well versed in desert ways, called ‘Instructor-of-Boys’ in Fremen legend, as his open-use name – but now everyone wants Paul to be something greater, and potentially more destructive, than what he currently is. It only gets worse when Paul begins to suffer prophetic dreams, and visions when he’s awake, prodding him further to his destiny as an epic conqueror of worlds. Nothing can be done for it, Paul convinces himself that he must take the Water of Life himself, to awaken the sleeping prophet inside himself, and allow him to hopefully See a path through the future. 

The problem with that plan, is that Bene Gesserit are almost exclusively all women, and only they are supposed to know how to transmute poisons internally, along with all sorts of other “witchcraft”. But Jessica has been training Paul in forbidden Bene Gesserit ways all his life, and as much as Paul might rail and even quail against it, there is no denying his incoming destiny, crushing any resistance he may have with all the force of a giant sandworm hunting a spice blow. And even when Paul has finally given in and taken the cursed substance almost mockingly called the Water of Life, it falls to another strong and prophetic in her right female in his life, his beloved Chani, to save him from himself. But even Chani can’t stop Paul’s destructive destiny as the conqueror of the known worlds, guilty of slaying millions upon millions of people in his quest for vengeance, thinly disguised as peace. 

Over on the Harkonnen homeworld of Geidi Prime, “Beast” Rabban (Dave Bautista) is disgusted and enraged at the continuing Fremen raids against the Harkonnens on Arrakis, and terrified of what his uncle the notoriously cruel Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard), will do to him in response. The Baron’s nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), heir apparent or na-Baron to House Harkonnen, demonstrates his blood-inborn savagery in a slaughter of the remnants of House Atreides gladiator-style, as his birthday celebration. Pleased with the spectacle, the Baron commands Feyd-Rautha to take control of the fight against this Fremen rebel known as Muad’dib, as Rabban is proving himself more and more useless. And any tool or toy that the Baron finds broken or unusable, is destroyed before being discarded. 

As the legend of Muad’dib grows off Arrakis and circulates among the Imperial worlds, the Emperor grinds his teeth in frustration and the Bene Gesserit, led by Reverend Mother Mohiam (Charlotte Rampling) as the Emperor’s Truthsayer, begin pushing forward their plots and machinations. Lady Margot Fenring (Lea Seydoux), a criminally underused character in this respect, demonstrates her willingness to be a pawn in Bene Gesserit machinations, but never forget, strong Bene Gesserit women have been breaking their own rules for generations. Just look at what Jessica did. 

As the raids and rebellion on Arrakis continue, both the Emperor and the Baron become more and more desperate, sending in mercenaries and smugglers in the hopes they might have more luck. And aboard one of those smuggler’s vessels happens to be an old hand at being a smuggler himself, the warrior troubadour with the scarred face given him by “Beast” Rabban himself, Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin). Reunited with his beloved Duke’s only son, Gurney finds himself swept up in the legend of Muad’dib in the making along with everyone else, though at least from Gurney’s point of view, Paul is using the messianic angle to take revenge for House Atreides. 

Finally, in an act of what could be considered the ultimate in arrogance, Emperor Shaddam Corrino himself comes to Arrakis, along with Princess Irulan and many others of his Court, the Baron, and Feyd-Rautha in tow as well, to crush this upstart Muad’dib and his Fremen warriors. Sadly for all that the powerhouse actor Christopher Walken plays him, Emperor Shaddam Corrino is shown as a doddering old man, cowed in the face of Muad’dib’s overwhelming vitality and growing-ever-stronger legend. And there is where we will end the review, for the final confrontation between all key players in the Known Universe is full of spoilers and derivations from the original opus of Frank Herbert’s novel Dune

For those of you who stuck around long enough to get to the end, after all, Dune Part Two is almost three hours long itself, if you are fans of the original novel and the zany Lynchian masterpiece that was the first Dune film, you may be disappointed or even angered at the changes made to the story for the climactic end scenes. Director Villenuve has an eye for making grand epic scenes like Paul’s sandworm ride but can be a bit scattered when it comes to piecing the story together with all the key players needing to be involved in a way that can be understood by any layman. Dune in any form is a rich, vast universe of storytelling, and even an almost three-hour-long sequel simply can’t cover every last bit that’s in the novels. But if nothing else, the film is an overwhelming feast for the eyes and should bring a whole new legion of fans to the many worlds contained within Dune

If you want to dive further into the Dune-iverse, do yourself a favor and read the Dune prequel books written by Herbert Jr. and Kevin J. Anderson. Until then, dive into the sands of Arrakis along with Shai-Hulud and scream vengeance to the skies with Paul Muad’dib Atreides in Dune Part Two, in theaters now! 

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The 8 Episode Series Tries To Encompass A Lot Leaving Fans In A Cliffhanger.

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The 2010 “Avatar: The Last Airbender” movie by M. Night Shyamalan faced criticism for its deviations from the beloved animated series. The film struggled with pacing, casting, and a lackluster script, disappointing fans who cherished the source material. In contrast, the 2024 Netflix series has generated positive buzz for its commitment to diverse casting, adherence to the original storyline, and improved character development. The series seems poised to capture the essence of the animated show, offering a fresh and faithful adaptation that resonates with both new and existing fans.

Even though the Netflix series comes closer to the core ideals of the animated series, I feel it lacks heart. Many scenes barely scratch the surface of the relationships between the characters and the push-and-pull relationship between Aang and Zuko. I will admit the CG versions of Momo and Appa are just so gosh darn cute.

The 8 episode series tries to encompass a lot leaving fans in a cliffhanger. It’s worth a watch and I am hanging on for the next season to be announced.

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