Today, I popped in the first disk of the first season... and wound up feeling incredibly, profoundly sad. I've no doubt that the creators of the show would take this response as a compliment. After all, every gangster story has it's share of tragedy. Someday, Scarface needs to get gunned down. The fact that I'm seeing that fall coming for Vince so early in the show is a credit to the show's craftsmanship, and fidelity to the form.
At the same time, part of what gets to me is the idea of applying the gangster formula to an actor's story in the first place. What the formula suggests is that this kid's rise to stardom is undeserved. Judging from the way he handles himself, that might be true - but that's hardly for me to say. Why does this show want me to condemn him?
On the one hand, he's not reading his scripts. He avoids his agent. He's never in rehearsal, never working, never reading, never playing acting games with his friends... he seems along for the ride. What's more, his reviews are terrible. On the other, he cites his third grade play as the big moment when acting became an important part of his life. Judging from the actors I know, age 7 or 8 is about right. From that age to the age of twenty or twenty-five, an actor can amass enough experience to get through a movie without too much embarrassment... if he works his ass off. If he practices every day. There's no getting around the work.
Then again, maybe Vince got lucky and it's going to catch up with him. Maybe that's what the show's about.
Either way, seeing it makes me feel sad. This is supposed to be a comedy, and I'm just waiting for the kid to wise up or destroy himself.
There's no big message here - I was just watching this show that everyone loves, and feeling terrible about what I was seeing. I love my actors. I want a good life for them, and those who aspire to be like them. What's a blog good for, if you can't get stuff like that off your chest?
Yours truly, Tennyson E. Stead
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