This is not my favorite Pixar feature. I’d put it a notch above Cars. WALL-E (or Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class) is the last remaining moving thing on the planet (apart form a dedicated and unnamed roach). The year, we learn later, is roughly 2815, and for approximately 700 years, the WALL-E units have been cleaning up the Earth in order to make it, once again, life sustainable. All of the other WALL-E units have fizzled out and stopped working, but our one little WALL-E happily goes about his business compacting units of waste and piling them into tall, sky scraper-like formations. If one of his parts breaks or malfunctions, there are plenty of other dead Wall-E units lying around to pilfer from. In fact, WALL-E keeps a large supply of spare parts (and other curiosities, ranging from rubber duckies to zippo lighters) in his little home, which is something of a shrine to the mindless consumerism that destroyed the planet. This is one of the few interesting ideas of the story: WALL-E is pretty much like us. He’s a pack rat. But the idea isn’t really developed into something one can wrap one’s head around. Anyway, while at work, WALL-E finds a small plant growing in an old refrigerator. He takes it back to his home and puts it with all the other stuff he’s accumulated. (more…)

Has anyone watched this? All I can find on the blog is a brief but positive aside from Jeff. It airs on Showtime, which I don’t get, but season 1 is available to watch instantly on Netflix. The concept seemed rife with opportunities to produce something really horrible: forensic investigator with the Miami police who specializes in tracking down serial killers, and he is especially good at his job because he himself is a serial killer. He handles his urges to kill by only going after those who has escaped punishment by the criminal justice system. Three episodes in, I am very impressed. Michael C. Hall (of Six Feet Under fame) plays the lead, and he owns the role. Many of the characters are pretty flimsy (especially Jennifer Carpenter who plays his sister), but Hall give a multi-layered performance managing to convey vulnerability and menace at the same time. A small smile plays across his lips most of the time, and his shows genuine delight at coming across a true master serial killer. The series plays cleverly and in non-obvious ways with issues of abuse, emotion, sex and vengeance. Hall has chosen to be in a relationship with a deeply damaged woman in part because it avoids the need for sex. His foster father, a cop, recognized his urges and essentially taught him how to get away with it, but also how to channel it towards “taking out the garbage.” Creepy, clever, compelling.