dreamloom

Author: R.A. Porter

  • The Middleman recap: “The Cursed Tuba Contingency”


    Oom-pah oom-pah-pah, friends! Polka wouldn’t be polka without it. Neither would pep bands. In fact, I’d wager that of all the music in the world, a good .001% would be horrible without the basso profundo of the mighty tuba. What kind of tuba you say? Tenor? Four-valve? The tuba kind.

    Great Randolph Scott!

    Wendy Watson‘s got a big night ahead of her. The night prior, she killed a giant pig-insect hybrid in the back of the Middlemobile and now she’s got to muck it out. That leaves Middleman with an evening free to catch the twilight matinee at a neighborhood revival theater. His favorite hero, Randolph Scott, is gracing the silver screen in Ride Lonesome. But someone’s on his tail. And that someone is Lacey Thornfield.

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  • Charlie Jade recap: “Devotion”

    I have mixed feelings about this episode. It’s the best of the season so far, I think. A compelling case can be made for “And Not a Drop to Drink”, as it opens the kimono on inter-dimensional travel, 01’s unique abilities, and the importance of water to the scheme of things. But tonight…it’s something else.

    Then again, this is also the last episode under Writing Regime #1 (WR#1). Things you’re starting to understand? Things that you’re figuring out? Some of that’s just going to change next week and beyond. And trust me when I say it will get a hundred times better and cooler. It takes a few episodes until the second team – Alex Epstein, Denis McGrath, and Sean Carley – really takes off, but even in next week’s episode, “Betrayal”, you can see marked improvement. That slowness that was evident early in the season goes away fast as things ramp up quickly.

    But that ramping starts tonight, even if it still looks like Charlie Jade is spinning his wheels.

    Missing Persons

    Charlie heads to the Glass Door to confront 01 Boxer about another missing girl. If you want me to point at the one thing obviously wrong in these first eight episodes, it is this: this is the first time these incredibly charismatic actors have shared a scene. Jeffrey Pierce and Michael Filipowich command the screen in subtly different ways.
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  • Mad Men review: “For Those Who Think Young”

    Fourteen months, thousands of cigarettes, and one beard later, we return to the offices of Sterling-Cooper and its denizens. In the first season of Mad Men, creator Matthew Weiner braced his agency against the rising tide of youth culture. But even against the backdrop of JFK’s generational campaign, 1960 was still dominated by the ways and mores of an earlier time. The few cracks that did show were personal rather than cultural.

    Now in early 1962, the future is seeping through a bit more.

    By making the timejump, Weiner has pulled a cover back over his characters. At the end of last season, we knew too much about these people. Less than we might know today about a stranger in a restaurant, carrying on a cellphone conversation oblivious to the people around her, but more than Weiner wants us to know about Don Draper and those around him. What we can surmise is that accommodations have been made all around:

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  • Burn Notice Recap: “Trust Me”

    Whooo damn, that was fun! Mike asked me to talk to y’all about tonight’s episode while he’s off eatin’ some chicken tikka with his new buddy Wasim, so let me tell you a little about myself. Name’s Davis Cullen. Daddy made his money in oil, but ain’t no way I’m livin’ like that. Up at four, in bed by nine. No, siree. I told him, “I don’t want your life” right before I left Texas. Lucky daddy’s always had a soft spot for me so I got a nice fat trust fund.

    The Recap

    Mike and Sam gotta get into the Pakistani consulate so Mike can get his hands on a file. Don’t matter what file, just anything’ll make the head of security take notice. So while Sam’s doing his best impression of – wassisname – Roger Murtaugh in the lobby, Mike slips back into this fellow’s office. Gets hisself a file and leaves a note.

    Next you know, Mike’s using all his spy expertise to sneak around his mama’s garage lookin’ for car parts. But his mama’s too good for that and catches him. Drags his butt inside where a bunch of hens are playin’ poker. Fiona got her butt whooped good, looks like. Then one of them ladies tells about another friend of theirs got a dumb kid in deep with a loan shark. Fi wants to help, so Mike and her meet the lady, Diane.

    Her boy Andy borrowed a heap of cash to invest in a club in Cuba. ‘Cept there was no club in Cuba. The whole thing’s a scam. Andy’s out 200 grand and the shark’s gettin’ hungry. Mike and Fi know all about the scam. They even tell Andy how it all played out. Sap didn’t even know he’d been had, till they told him!

    So Mike and Fi go to this club, Velvet. Fi figures she’s got the best shot to get back in his office, ’cause she’s hotter than a horned lizard in August, so Mike heads out to meet up with Wasim. But it turns out Zeke’s office needs one them magnetic cards like in a hotel, so she can’t get the money. Things ain’t much better for Mike. Wasim ain’t bitin’.

    The loan shark shows up at Diane’s house and roughs up Andy somethin’ awful. But Mike uses a copy of Cat Fancy to bust them up even worse. Baranski, that’s the loan shark’s name, gives them two days, but he puts the debt on Mike, too.

    Mike gives Wasim back his files, but he does it in the park where Wasim’s having a picnic with a cute little blond lady. Sam gets pictures so it looks like a payoff. When Mike picks up a dinner tab later, Wasim knows he’s been had. If he wants to stay in good with his bosses and stay in Miami, he’s gonna have to find them files on Carla that Mike wants.

    Now here’s where I come in. Mike figures I’m the kind of fella can get in good with Zeke, so I go to his club and just act natural. Eventually Zeke takes notice and asks Fi about me. Then we go back to the VIP room and party for a bit. I cut out to break into Zeke’s safe, but it’s just a dummy. A few hundred bucks and cut up newspaper. So I plant a bug and get the hell outta Dodge with Fi.

    We’re gonna have to do this the hard way, so I gotta get in on Zeke’s scam. Me and my lawyer Chuck Finley go talk to Zeke. You might know Chuck. Been around Miami for a bit, good guy to have in a scrape. ‘Cept Chuck’s got the purse strings on my trust fund and makes it hard for me to invest in this here club. Oh wait, that’s right. The club in Havana’s a scam and we’re supposed to make it look like we’re hard to convince. Damn!

    See, what we’re gonna do is put $200K in an escrow account, then Zeke’s gonna have to match those funds. So all we gotta do is get $200K. And fast, ’cause Baransky’s kidnapped Andy’s mama.

    That $200K is as good as got, ’cause Mike and his buddy “Bad Check Barry” the money launderer are talkin’ again. It’s good to see that, ’cause they’d been on the outs. But Barry’s gonna transfer some money from a closed bank account. It’ll only be a few minutes before someone notices it’s fake, but Mike figures that’s all it’ll take.

    See, what’s gonna happen is this:

    • I go to the house Zeke and his partners rented.
    • I call Barry and he transfers the money.
    • Zeke calls his partners to come on in and pretend to be Feds and bust Zeke.
    • But Sam and Fi jump them first and blow up their car.
    • Zeke sees that, and I tell him *my* partners are ex Delta Force guys who just killed a couple of Feds. They’re gonna want their money.

    Me and Zeke head to Velvet and he hands me all the cash in the real safe, almost $250K. After I leave, I got no idea what’s gonna happen to him, but I’d guess his partners ain’t gonna be none too happy. But I’ve got the money for Mike and that’s all I care about.

    Mike pays off the loan shark with the money, minus $300. He bought him a subscription to Cat Fancy, just to give him a reminder to keep his “hands off people’s mothers.” I suspect Baransky’s not gonna bother Andy and his mama.

    Character Counts

    Tonight continues the aftermath of Fiona and Michael’s breakup. He can claim they weren’t dating all he’d like, but in fact and deed they were. It’s pretty clear tonight that Michael’s regretting the breakup even more than we might have guessed he would from the season premiere, but he’s not going to let that show. Much.

    Madeline’s upset by it all, because she thinks Michael’s better, almost happy, when Fiona’s around. His unwillingness to open up and meet her half way make him just like his father. A second week running, we see a bit more of how much Madeline does love *and* understand her son. But as much as she wants Michael to be happy, she understands Fiona’s need not to be the second most important thing in his life. From experience.

    When Michael finally talks to his mother about the breakup, he thinks she’s upset because he won’t be giving her grandchildren. But that’s not Madeline’s concern:

    Michael: This is about grandchildren.
    Madeline: No honey. It’s not about me. It’s about you. Life is hard if you have to live it alone. And having kids makes the ride more fun.
    Michael: I was fun?

    The smile and gentle stroke on the cheek Madeline gives is all the answer to that question he, or we need.

    Chin Bits

    So, did I mention I’m in Vegas tonight? Away from my Tivo and ability to replay the show to get these great lines? Here’s what I got.

    • “Couldn’t it be Jamaica, those guys are probably very easy going.”
    • “Hey, smooth is smooth”

    And my favorite Sam exchange of the night, where Michael actually gets the zinger after telling Sam to leave his cellphone on to bug Zeke’s office:

    “How’s Ronnie supposed to get in touch with me?”
    “Tell her to try the bar at Carlito’s”

    Important Lessons in Spycraft

    Huh. You think it was tough to catch all the great Bruce Campbell bits? Imagine how much harder it must be to get all the lessons in spying!

    • Low-level agents get traded, not prosecuted
    • Stay away from embassies and consulates
    • Bureaucrats get worried about pissed off journalists
    • The head of security in a consulate is almost always a spy
    • A cellphone makes an excellent bug in a pinch, but it uses a lot of juice. An unused USB port can keep it charged
    • A hairpin can open many locks
    • A low-end safe can be opened with a hammer, but if it’s already open that’s probably overkill

    Parting Thoughts

    Michael’s got a file on Carla now. She’s still got the advantage, but he’s no longer completely blind. He knows, at least, what cover she used in Kurdistan. It also seems likely to me that Michael actually does have a friend in the Pakistani intelligence community now. Or at least someone who might consider Carla a common enemy.

    There is, of course, no way that Michael and Fiona are going to stay apart for too long. She’ll start dating someone – I can probably even tell you who, and who will be playing him, but that’s cheating – in the next few weeks and that’s going to gnaw at Michael. He loves her. He knows it and so does everyone else. He just needs to put her first, or get her to accept coming in second.

    What did everyone else think?

    R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

  • Charlie Jade recap: “Diamonds”

    Surprise…Charlie Jade is not a force of nature. Neither is he a man with no name. He’s flesh and blood, and filled with contradictions. Like anyone, Charlie has a past that informs who and why he is and this week we get a peak into it.

    Diamonds are Forever

    Remember that gangster’s pinkie ring Charlie wears? The one he pawned to pay for his sweet ride? Charlie hits the shop, looking to retrieve it. Instead he finds the owner dead and the ring missing.

    A flashback to five years earlier shows us Charlie as a soldier of some sort, on a sweep with his partner. Charlie lags behind as she bursts through a door and opens fire, killing a man and his wife. She scans his implant, then cuts that recognizable ring from the man’s hand, passing it over to Charlie with a smile on her face. Charlie hears steps at his back and spins, weapon at the ready. He finds a small child in his sights and recoils. Happy partner takes the kid out with one quick shot.

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  • Middleman Recap: “The Boy-Band Superfan Interrogation”

    Fuzzy Porn

    Lacey wants to watch SMACC (Supremo-Destructo Martial Arts Combat Channel), because the martial arts are the most confrontational of all the arts. But she can’t adjust their satellite dish and comes back in when Wendy Watson sees fuzzy porn. Turns out, it was just Varsity Fanclub. Then Lacey demonstrates her fandom by dancing along with the five perpetually pubescent harmonizers.

    Pip drops by to invite the gang to his gallery show, Deus ex Pip, at The Gate. But, “his” paintings are Wendy’s! Uh, but the armed gorilla is still in the illegal sublet Wendy shares with another young photogenic artist. How’s the Pipster pulling this one off?

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  • MythBusters: Shark Special

    Adam and Jamie in the water
    Adam and Jamie in the water – Copyright Discovery Channel

    It’s that time of year again. The time when a young man’s fancy turns to sun, sand, and surf. And though I try to honor Tracy Jordan‘s challenge to “live every week like it’s Shark Week,” even I need a gentle reminder once in awhile. Fortunately, Discovery Channel is happy to oblige.

    This year, Shark Week kicks off with the two-hour MythBusters: Shark Special on Sunday, July 27 from 9-11pm ET/PT. The MythBusters test seven myths about the great predators using their standard formula of scientific whimsy mixed with insane experimentation. There’s madness to their method and that’s what makes the show fun for us. Sometimes scary for them, but fun on the safety of our La-Z-Boys.

    Myth #1: Eye Gouge

    Is it even possible, under the thrashing and duress of an attack, to find a shark’s eyes to ward it off?

    To test the myth, they decide *not* to climb into the gaping maw of a real man eater. Instead, Master Busters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage build a 17-foot, robotic Great White. Using a replica fiberglass shark made from a life cast and cutting it into segments that can be articulated, the guys make a robot suitable for the test. The robot includes real chomping and thrashing action, too.

    Starting off with a mouthful of custom cut steel teeth, sharpened and serrated just like nature’s own, the guys test out bite strength on a surfboard and pig’s carcass. But that’s not the reason they’re in SF Bay. Adam swaps out the steel choppers for some rubber ones and he and Jamie rope Grant Imahara into taking Bruce on his maiden voyage. Not to worry. Adam’s turn will come soon enough.

    Myth #2: Is Playing Dead a Good Strategy in Shark-infested Waters?

    Based on the experience of one of the survivors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the Junior Busters will determine whether playing dead in the water is a viable strategy, at least when other survivors are thrashing nearby.

    Down in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas, Grant and Tory Belleci gear up with chain mail and scuba tanks and hop in the water while Kari Byron chums it. Cute Redhead + Dead Fish = Crazy Hot. It also equals plain crazy. I have to say, I now believe there is something a pretty girl could ask me to do to which I’d say no: jumping in chummed water and thrashing about while sharks swim by. But these guys are game. Scared, but game.

    She keeps them in the water for 10 minutes and they’re clearly thrilled to get out. Then she shows her sadistic side. I mean, they can’t be sure the experiment was definitive unless the boys get back in and switch roles, right?

    Myth #3: Do Magnets Repel Sharks?

    Sharks have a network of jelly-filled canals in their bodies called Ampullae of Lorenzini. With these, sharks and rays are able to detect electromagnetic fields and temperature gradients. The theory is that magnets may be able to repel sharks by interfering with their electomagnetic sense in some way, so Adam and Jamie test it out.

    They first test with small sharks, but decide they need to run a full-size test with Lemon and Tiger sharks. Chum boxes are studded with magnets and Adam climbs into a shark cage. I’m not sure how he and Jamie decided who’d be the water monkey for this – a coin toss, short straw, roshambo – but I guess you could say Adam won? The Hyper Host gets to see the sharks up close while his colleague, Ol’ Calm Sideburns, only gets to hear about it over the radio. Then again, Jamie’s safe on deck and not feet away from swarming, hungry sharks.

    Grant and Kari with RoboDog - Copyright Discovery Channel
    Grant and Kari with RoboDog – Copyright Discovery Channel

    Myth #4: Do Dogs Attract Sharks?

    First a robot shark, and now a “barking, urinating, swimming, canine robot.” The Junior Busters start off by building a tank and filming Kari’s dog swimming so they can duplicate its movements. For science. After all, they want a doggie robot that does a proper doggie’s doggy paddle. Nobody wants a Daggett that drowns.

    Grant eschews an electic motor for the ‘bot so as not to interfere with those Ampullae of Lorenzini, opting to power the guts of the mechanism with air. He includes a remote system for deploying syringes of dog blood, dog urine, and… well… alright, I’ll tell ya. Kari took her pups to the vet to have their anal glands “expressed”.

    Ever wonder why dogs sniff each other’s butts? It’s for the incredible stench emanating from those glands. A stench that might just attract sharks as well as Shar Peis.

    Myth #5: Do Flashlights Attract Sharks?

    On night dives, you really need a flashlight. But sharks hunt at night and might be attracted to the light, or possibly the EM fields given off by the lights. So Kari, Tory, and Grant dive on two successive nights, once without flashlights and once with.

    On both nights, their dive location – a wrecked ship – is lit by low-level lights to simulate moonlight. On the second, the three slice through the inky depths with flashlights. For 20 minutes they stay down, counting sharks. I can imagine few sensations as claustrophobic and horrifying as standing underwater in near darkness, counting sharks as they suddenly appear. That’s the price of doing science, though. And entertainment.

    Myth #6: Do Hot Chilies Repel Sharks?

    The Cuna Indians of Panama trail strings of habanero chilies behind their canoes to deter shark attacks. So Adam and Jamie decide to test chilies out as a deterrent. Pureed habanero is loaded into biodegradable balloons attached to the top of chum boxes.

    Mmm! I think it’s time for sushi. I could go for some spicy tuna.

    Myth #7: Do Flapping Fish Attract Sharks?

    Adam and Jamie tested this once before, but too scientifically for Jamie’s tastes. Pumping out a 40Hz tone isn’t quite the same as a fish flapping. Unfortunately no one builds a robot for this test. But Adam does get to freak out on the ocean floor while Jamie splashes dangling fish from a rubber dingy.

    Tory and RoboShark - Copyright Discovery Channel
    Tory and RoboShark – Copyright Discovery Channel

    Final Thoughts

    I’m not a regular viewer of MythBusters, but I’ll occasionally find myself on a lazy Saturday catching a marathon. When I do, I usually spend two, or three, or four hours enthralled by the crazy lengths the guys go to in order to bust or prove myths. I appreciate not just the goofiness they bring to bear – using a pig carcass to test Bruce the Great White’s bite pressure and building a Robot Dog with real anal extract being just two examples – but their commitment to the scientific method. They make science approachable and entertaining which is something we desperately need as fewer and fewer kids care to pursue careers in the sciences.

    Not to get all preachy, but I’d love if even one child watched this just to see the cool sharks and decided to study them himself. Or saw the articulated shark and thought she’d like to study robotics. It doesn’t hurt to remind adults that learning about the world through play is worthwhile, either.

    Plus? Kari in a bikini, y’all.

    R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

  • Burn Notice Recap: “Turn and Burn”

    My buddy Michael Westen is busy in therapy or something this week, so he gave me this job. I’ll do what I can, but you know, “little out of my league. I’m good with papers not with computers. I think this is a computer thing, right?”

    The Recap

    That broad Carla left him a message in a crossword puzzle to meet at some mall. He shows up and she gives him a job. She needs this security badge duped and only one guy in town can do it. Nice guy, even if he don’t want to do whatchamacallit, barter, for the job. Takes him a couple of days to do it right, which leaves Mikey time to help out some other chick.

    Lady DEA agent in way deep is getting stalked by some big honcho with the Cartel. Me, I like to stay far away from those guys. Guns give me the creeps. But Mikey helps her out. They make it look like this guy’s trying to kill his boss, and then the mook runs to the DEA for protection. He gets the shock of his life when he finds out he’s been hittin’ on the lady DEA agent for years, though.

    When Mikey’s not helping her out, he’s seein’ a head shrinker with his mom. But she don’t like that any more than he does. Even if the lady looks just like her.

    But she does like the new coffeemaker Carla got her.

    When I go pick up the badge – that Nefzi guy does real pretty work – I pay him a little extra ’cause Mikey wants to know what building it goes to. But Carla’s too quick. I run back in, but it’s too late. He’s dead.

    Character Counts

    Phew. That white track suit was hot. Didn’t breathe at all. Glad to be out of it. Tonight on Burn Notice, the heavy relationship lifting was all about Michael and Madeline. Of course there’s the new coffeemaker, conveniently left in Madeline’s house in the middle of the night by Carla or one of her goons. That’s a bit of a scare for Micheal.

    More significantly, Madeline drags Michael to counseling. We get a great sight gag and reaction shot from Jeffrey Donovan as the camera reveals the counselor with hair of gold, just like Sharon Gless. It’s a funny moment, but it’s also a telling moment.

    Madeline is seeking confirmation and help in getting her reticent son to open up, but when the tables are turned – really, just the therapist being fair and consistent – she quickly reconsiders the quality of care she’s getting. Michael’s mother is less interested in repairing rifts than regaining and retaining a mythical ideal of family. Her sons are still her little boys and she’s never been able to relate to them as adults, partly because their childhoods were cut short by circumstance.

    When Michael comes to pick up his mother for their second session, she tells him she’d rather find someone else, “someone who asks better questions.” Michael reaches out, offering to spend time with Madeline. Standing side by side with arms crossed, postures fully guarded, Madeline gives Michael the answer to the question he’d asked in therapy: why she didn’t ask his nine-year-old self about a black eye he got stealing groceries for the family. She was proud. And thought Michael looked proud. She let him have his lie, that he’d bought the groceries, thinking that’s what he wanted, when in fact all the little boy wanted was his mother’s attention.

    It’s a great scene, and the very small smile on Donovan’s face says all we need to know about how Michael Westen feels.

    Chin Bits

    Honestly, this wasn’t a great episode for Sam or Fiona. They’re pushed mostly to the background, only getting a couple of scenes each. Of course they shine even in support.

    • “When I’m on a job, it turns her on. It’s all I can do to keep up. The things this woman does. I’m trying to get some too.”
    • “Mike, look. I did a little pre-scouting but…I knew he was packing. I didn’t know he had a Mac-10. I thought it was like a regular gun.”
    • “I’m starving anyway!” (Particularly funny as Sam’s scarfing chips as he says this.)
    • “Well, Sammy will take whatever reward you want to give him, baby!”

    Important Lessons in Spycraft

    • “If an operative hands you a crossword puzzle, chances are you just received a coded message.”
    • Nail polish remover dissolves ink. A nice way to counterfeit some checks by washing.
    • A great way to meet a thief is to pretend to be in the same business.
    • “People trust you when they have something on you…It’s all about making them feel secure.”
    • “People don’t trust information they get for free. If you want to sell someone on a lie, you have to make them drag it out of you.”
    • Experienced operatives play their roles harder under pressure.
    • The best way to distract men is not with a beautiful woman. They want her to stay around. But they want to get rid of obnoxious guys. That’s of course why Sam is always handy to have around.
    • “The trick to selling an assassination attempt is to use a lot more firepower. And an explosion or two.”
    • “If you walk in on a corpse and can’t catch your breath…someone might be pumping nitrogen gas into the room to displace all the oxygen.”

    Parting Thoughts

    We got some interesting tidbits on the long arc tonight. Michael *believes* that Carla speaks Arabic with a Kurdish accent. It’s not much to go on, but is a start. Of course, that’s going to be moot if she faked the accent. Michael knows those who burned him want to keep him around for the long haul. He’s refused their blood money, but he’s going to keep doing their dirty work until he can get some answers. He is a de facto employee at this point, and worried about the safety of his friends and family. Carla’s made it clear she can get to anyone of them at any time.

    What’s she going to leave Madeline next time? A toaster?

    I was moved a lot by the way Michael and Madeline interacted tonight. One of the rare times they stopped talking past each other and connecting, the kitchen scene at the end of the evening packed a lot of punch. That’s two episodes running with really strong character work. Actually, it’s more than two if we count last season’s finale.

    The show’s firing on all cylinders, giving us good action, good intrigue, clever banter, and heart. It’s a shame the Emmy committee couldn’t find a place for this gem of a show.

    What did everyone else think?

    R.A. Porter is an aspiring television writer who currently toils away in the software mines. He can be found at his personal blog and stalked on Twitter.

  • Middleman Recap: “The Flying Fish Zombification”

    Breakfast Time

    On the balcony to the illegal sublet Wendy shares with another young, photogenic artist, she and Lacey are preparing for Art Crawl, a semi-sporadical festival of the arts. Dubby’s talking on the phone with her moms and Lacey’s a bit jealous. See, her moms – Dr. Barbara Thornfield, M.D. Ph.D. – is the absent type. But Lacey’s got Dubby to prop her up and keep her sane. She can always count on Dubby.

    Snack Time

    It’s Wendy Watson‘s first session with Sensei Ping. Sadly, we don’t get to see the master battler of the Clan of the Pointed Stick in action, we only hear him behind door number one. One hour of training – 59 1/2 minutes actually – and Dubby’s not dead. She’s thrilled.

    That was awesome. That was the best thing ever. The teaching, the learning, the laughter, the bonding. I swept the leg!

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  • Charlie Jade Recap: “Dirty Laundry”

    In case anyone’s forgotten, Charlie works for Karl. He gets a couch and a hundred Rand a day to investigate Vex-Cor. But there’s a price to pay for being in Karl’s employ. This week, the price is getting his butt kicked by some white supremacists while following the trail of missing organizer and activist Themba Makandi.

    Charlie Jade doesn’t take place in a vacuum. The geography of Cape Town – the ocean, Table Mountain, Robben Island – frequently come into play. The history of the city and South Africa also inform much of the show’s writing. The disappearance of Makandi is certainly more resonant in the South Africa of Beta than it would be in the North America of co-creators Chris Roland and Robert Wertheimer. The wounds of Apartheid are fresh and a source of much current pain.

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