Found In the Woods

Well the summertime is here and besides catching up on reruns I've found a few gems that I've really enjoyed.

Rescue Me
F/X Tue 10:00pm

The show focuses on the lives of seven or eight FDNY firefighters who all live pretty intense lives. Apart from the fire fighting and gritty humor, the show delves into some pretty intense character conflicts; Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary), the lead character, loses his son at the end of the last season. Sexual infidelity, drugs, alcohol and a heaping serving of brawls are all the order of the day. I'm not one to really revel in the obvious coarseness of most Television shows of this genre. There is something about Rescue Me that keeps drawing me back in.

Sure, the indecent humor and sexual situations are all engaging, but there's so much more here. The characters don't sell out. They maintain the toughness/stuidity/innocence/angst/weakness that the writers imbibed upon them at the getgo and strive to make something out of their lives in the day to day. I think that most of them have resolved to their life status and take great pride in it. Also, the editing is wonderful. Comic timing is brilliant and not overdone or too obvious. There's lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing. Check out the show and be prepared for lots of cursing, sexual situations (some explicit) and some good 'ol NYC-style brawls.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
PBS: Independent Lens various times, check website

I caught this by accident on Saturday night. It's an engaging, delightful story about a farmer who faces the farming crisis of the 1980s in America and meets it head on. After the storm passes, he loses nearly everything. Picking up the peices, he rebuilds in a new way – this time, farming organically. His success is a fascinating story of hard work and a willing intellect. He adopts philosophies and ideas to his own life and ends up with a profitable entity fully backed by a community of stakeholders , students, friends and and admirers. The stripped-down, earthy feel of this documentary is what got me interested. This man is so passionately and strongly attached to his land, he will try anything to keep it. A great story, well told.

Alone in the Wilderness
PBS, http://www.dickproenneke.com

This is a sort of documentary / art film. It's a fascinating look into the life of a man, Dick Proenneke, who in the early 1970s left the hum-drum of the working world behind, took a few tools and a canoe and headed out in to the Alaskan wilderness to build a home; literally. The film is mostly self shot and shows Dick working day by day on his cabin, which he builds nearly entirely from local materials. About the only thing not local are the nails and the tarpaper roof sheets! He even buids several tools from scratch. A remarkable tale, told through the words of Proenneke, which can also be read in his journal. This guy is a real craftsman. One of a long lost breed. The way he manipulates the materials he has from raw logs into usable pieces of lumber, furniture and tools is simply amazing. I found myself agape at his skill and patience. This one will be hard to find on regular TV; buy the DVD or borrow it from the library.