Thursday, May 15, 2008

Only SIX More Hours!!!

Only six more hours until we see Prince Caspian! The boys are so excited. Mom's looking forward to it a little too. Even more, Mom's looking forward to the sleep she will get afterward. We've been going all day, and I'm already beat. Hopefully I'll get my $6 worth of movie tonight.

Midnight!!! It'll be here soon!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

House, M.D.--Bad Medicine

Like a junkie, I have an addiction. Well, several addictions if the truth must be known. I’m the typical addict, obsessed by my drugs of choice, finishing one fix only to begin jonesing for the next, always unsatisfied with something I know will never satisfy me, yet trying to grab for more hoping I can at least dull the pain accumulated in life and the ache of my heart for something more. Like many addicts, I rotate my cravings, satisfying one for a while, then switching to another when I start to fear for my soul. I don’t look like a “normal” junkie—whatever normal is—not only because I can hide my obsessions well, but because my obsessions aren’t thought of as anything to worry about. Ever heard of a kids getting killed by watching too much TV? How about a punk robbing a grocery store for Oreos and ice cream? Besides, I’m careful. I can handle it. I could quit at any time. Everybody else does it. What would it do to my family if I cut it out . . . . Need I go on? My obsessions look OK, and are kind of “respectable” because nearly everybody does them, but they’re killing my spirit.

My latest obsession has been with the television show “House M.D.” an odd show about a cynical, abrasive diagnostic specialist working on medical mysteries in a first class teaching hospital. The show is both intriguing and unsettling to me, and because of my “habit” I have been content to continue viewing (at a frantic pace, I might add), trying to figure out why I like such an offensive character and why such amusement leaves me so concerned about the influence such a popular show has on not only our culture, but on my dear friends (and sometimes my son!) who watch it just like I do.

It’s not surprising that this show works overtime to be politically correct, all the while providing the post-modern poke at every side of every issue. (Yes, I know this is a contradiction. I can't explain it any better.) Nothing is absolute in this show, except the two fundamental truths that “everyone lies” and “people can’t change.” Married, single, homosexual, devoutly religious, obese, vain, old, young, red, blue, green . . . everything is great, and at the same time ridiculous too, and you can make fun of anyone as long as the worst of it’s done behind the backs of those involved. Well, that is unless you are a spoiled, selfish doctor whose one diagnosis a week justifies the abuse he dishes out on his boss, his staff, his patients, and pretty much anyone else he encounters. He’s allowed to insult people to their faces, because . . . he’s funny. And he’s in pain . . . and addicted to serious narcotics. (It’s OK! They’re legally prescribed!) As the kids and I say, he’s not really mean, he’s just misunderstood . . . and yet again, in genuine post-modern fashion, his meanness is so clear it’s impossible to misunderstand him.

I’ve thought about the attractiveness of a guy like House. Would I like that wise-cracking Renaissance man in real life? Would the guy who might actually like people under his hard exterior seem as vulnerable to me if I met up with him in a hospital, or anywhere else? Would his unshaven, casual (sloppy and unprofessional) appearance be enough for me when I saw the twinkle in his eye from his admiration of his own wit? To that I can answer a definitive no. His confrontational “style” and total void of compassion for anyone, including his “friends” would send me running. OK, maybe I would cower, since I hate confrontation, but my point is that anything I see and like on the show, could never be enough in real life to interest me in being anywhere near him. Why am I so intrigued by it on a show?

One of the things the show has repeatedly explored that has raised my curiosity is House versus God. While the writers of the show would like to give some sort of belief a fair shake, their position (summed up in House) is clear. Science is god, and if it can’t be presented, tested, and solved by House, it can’t be trusted. What’s more, those who do live by any kind of faith, well, they’re a little wacky and to each his own, but they’re not really to be trusted either. The thing I don’t get is that all of the characters in the show who live by these post-modern philosophies are miserable. Really miserable. They can’t count on each other, they can’t count on what they know (because there’s always one more fact hiding and hindering their diagnosis), and they can’t even satisfy themselves. Yet they continue living their lives just as they always have, laughing all the way to their vices that dull the pain. Sex, drugs, alcohol, control, knowledge . . . most of them have tried it all, and they’re still looking.

Of course the real winner in the show is the patient or patients with the life-threatening condition who comes right to death’s door, only to be saved in the nick of time by our anti-hero with a cane. Amazing that such a thing can happen in one short hour! OK, not really, they cure ‘em on the show in one or two days . . . ‘cause everyone knows that one unblocked artery, the elimination of the toxin, or the administration of two doses of just the right medicine instantly corrects the condition and years of wear and tear from it (not to mention the damage done looking for the answer to the mystery).

I know that I sound picky and critical. I’m just slowly seeing that my fascination with House M.D. is about as constructive to my soul as his Vicodin habit is to his body. I have long believed that you can’t let things into your head without them affecting the way you think, even if you are watching critically, making lists of all the things that are morally and ethically wrong, and discussing it with the most discerning of your friends. You just can’t filter out all of the toxic waste, and cleaning it up a little isn’t going to be enough to leave you without the need for a doctor. I’m also coming to realize that I have the pre-existing condition of growing up in an increasingly post-modern world, so that it is a hard battle to rehabilitate my thinking to conform to God’s Word. With my pre-existing condition, adding toxic waste philosophy quickly puts me at critical mass, needing intensive care.

Unfortunately, with this condition, I think it’s going to take a little more work than an hour . . . or even a few days of treatment. Odd that the One who can step in and heal me in that short amount of time, or even instantly, usually just doesn’t do it that way. So I’m looking at some hard detox time to free me from this habit. Fortunately, the cure is no mystery:

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:27-31


Sorry, House. From now on, you can keep your medicine. I’ve found what will satisfy me for good.

Ironman: A Great Superhero Film

The boys and I saw Ironman last week when it opened. Now, I have watched MANY superhero movies, and of all of them, I was most worried about this one. Among the comics, the main hero Tony Starke is known to be one of the most flamboyant playboys of the comics . . . and that's saying something! I was concerned about how they would portray that part of the character in the movie. I was pleasantly surprised. While there were two back-to-back scenes that had to be mommy-edited (hands over your eyes, boys!), they were brief and singular. Instead of dwelling on Starke's womanizing and carousing, they focused on his materialism and indifference toward the consequences of his fortune-generating weapons production business.

There is violence--lots of explosions and shooting (which delighted my boys. Why do they giggle at such things?), but for the most part it was not personal and even when it was those scenes were brief. There are also problems with some of the language, but not enough to really bother me (probably more a comment on my sensitivities than the purity of the language of the movie). There is also lots of drinking, smoking, partying, and some gross-out scenes (not bad, but there).

To me though, the thing that redeemed this film and made it something worth discussing with the boys was the message. The playboy without a conscious Starke is radically changed when he is abducted by terrorists using weapons his company manufactured. This has a profound influence on him as he finally realizes the serious consequences of producing more, bigger, and better weapons. He uses his genius to escape, then determines to right his wrongs. He suspends his company's weapons production, and works to perfect his suit so he can personally intervene when help is needed. It is his radical turn-around that makes this film so good. It is reminiscent of salvation, and can provoke a lot of discussion about what makes a man great and what is worth pursuing in life.

I would be cautious in taking a younger child to this movie. My youngest probably wouldn't have gone if he hadn't had older brothers. But for young teens and older, this is a good movie to spark some conversation.

A more detailed Plugged in Online review is here.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Under Advice . . .

. . . from a friend, I'm undertaking to begin reviewing movies, television shows, music, and maybe some video games. I don't claim to be an expert in any of these, except that I consume my fair share of them (OK, maybe not video games). I do seem to have a knack for finding some good movies, and I have been very frustrated with trying to find reviews with my values in mind. So, I'll give it a whirl. Hopefully also as I catagorize, it'll make it easy for you guys out there in blog-land to find movies that are good for your family, your boys, your Thursday night girl-friends' group, etc. My main goals are to help you as parents or viewers to make wise and educated decisions, to aid you in avoiding stuff that looked good, but has proven not to be so, and to encourage you to think critically and biblically about what you are putting in your head.

I guess one of the first things to do is to lay all my biases out on the table. I was a journalism major in college for a couple semesters, and it drove me to distraction to hear them tote their impartiality and unbiased approach because . . . well . . . it wasn't. I don't believe it's possible to present anything completely objectively, since every one of us has some sort of worldview that we filter information through. I find it more helpful to know what I'm dealing with in terms of bias, so I can add that into my consideration of what is said. So here's mine:

My worldview is first Christian. Not Christian by birth, or by citizenship in the U.S., but Christian by what I understand the Holy Bible to teach. Now I'm not a seminary graduate, and I don't have extensive training or such, but I have sat under some pretty great teaching, and I have a good general grasp of what is taught in the Bible. I also am blessed to have some great friends who love God's Word and work to understand and think about it, so I have lots of feedback. My worldview is also conservative reformed. I'm not ashamed of that. It doesn't bother me to believe that God's way is narrow, or that He is completely soveriegn any more than it bothers me to believe that you can't drink poison and get away with it for long. When I indulge in more recent media, I often look for post-modern influences, and although I can often spot it, sometimes I still get a little too dazzled by something I kind of like at first, then later begin to put my finger on things that bother me.

Some of my "hot buttons" (everybody has 'em) are overly sensual or explicitly se*ual stuff, irreverence of God, and extra-marital relationships. I could go into reasons for these, but you'd be bored of reading long before I was done, and I'm not sure I'd ever get any reviews completed. As we go along, hopefully you'll find more of what influences me. When I'm not sure about something, I'll probably say so, and I will likely go back and revise reviews as I have new considerations, so in re-reading you might find new things. Please don't hesitate to leave comments, disagree, make points of your own. I'll consider them and adjust my review as I see new things I didn't catch as I pondered them myself. It would also be helpful for you to ask questions or make suggestions about specific things to look for that I seem to be missing.

So here we go! Let's go to the movies!