AngelaBenson.com

ORIGINAL POST FOR “I am hooked!” below.  SEE UPDATE IN COMMENTS.

A couple of months ago Comcast was offering $5/month subscriptions to HBO and Cinemax.  Not one to pass up a deal, I signed up.  The greatest benefit in doing so has been getting to watch the last season of The Wire, the HBO crime drama.  Since I have digital cable, I was able to watch the episodes on “HBO On Demand” a week before they aired on regular HBO. 

I have to tell you that I was hooked after the first show.  And still am, though I admit that the last episode was a bit of a downer for me.  I like tidy endings and that one was everything but tidy. 

The series may be over but I’m still hooked.  I joined Netflix so I could rent and watch the four seasons I had missed. In addition to fifth season, I’ve now seen the first season, the fourth season and the last five episodes of the second season.  This is some good television.

If you’re offended by “colorful” language, you may want to pass on this show.  Your ears will be buring and ringing and everything in between.  But the stories and the characters are something to experience.  While there are “good guys” and “bad guys,” it’s sometimes hard to figure out which is which. 

The series is set in Baltimore.  The first season dealt with the drug war on Baltimore streets.  To paraphrase Lt. Daniels, “If I follow the drugs, I’ll get drug dealers, but if I follow the money, I don’t know where it’ll take me.” That one sentence tells the story of the first season.  It turns the concept of “war on drugs” on its ear. 

Season 4 takes us to a Baltimore middle school.  Bring your tissues is my best advice ‘cos you’re going to be crying over these kids a lot. Take Dukie, for instance.  First, the assistant principal sends him a box of back to school supplies, including some clothing.  When he still wears the same clothes every day and is a bit smelly, his math teacher gives him another set of clothes.  When he continues to wear his old smelly clothes, the teacher pulls aside one of the other students to find out why.  The answer: “His people sell his stuff on the corner.”  You see, Dukie’s parents are drug addicts and they exchange what people give him for drugs with the guys on the corner.  You’ll have to watch Season 4 to see what happens to Dukie and his friends, Michael, Randy and Namond.

Season 5, the final season, was everything you don’t want to know about government and newspaper publishing.  Will the Democrat mayor beg the Republican governor for money to cover the school system’s $50 million deficit, or will he save his pride (and his own gubernatorial aspirations) and let the schools suffer?  Will the newspaper turn a blind eye to a reporter who is obviously making up stories because it thinks the stories might lead to Pulitzer? How far will a cop go to catch a drug kingpin?  I didn’t like the answers The Wire provided to any of these questions, but I have a gut feeling that the answers provided were what would most likely happen.

Season 2 is about dock workers and Season 3 brings us back to the drugs. I’ll let you know more about them after I view the DVDs.  This really was a great series with some great actors.  I still wish I had gotten my tidy ending though.

If you’ve seen The Wire, tell me what you think of the show. If you haven’t seen it, pick up a DVD.  You’ll be hooked after the first episode.

Good news! Sandi Mallory, host of Morning Journey on NPR (WEAA-AM Baltimore), interviewed me yesterday morning. She had read the The Amen Sisters and contacted my publicist at Grand Central Publishing.  I enjoyed it, but I have a habit that I have to lose. I finish most my statements with, “if you know what I mean.” YIKES!  I must get ready for prime time.

I’ve gotten on the audiobook bandwagon so I’ve been listening to quite a few books during my daily commute and other driving trips.  Through this process, I’ve gotten to know and fall in love with a new author: Jan Karon.  Now I know she’s not new to lots of peope, and though I’d heard of her Mitford series, I’d never read one.  Well, I’m on my second book now and I’m absolutely in love.

To be honest, I’ve had to sit back and wonder why I’m in love.  You know why?  Because she has the best characters in the world and the guy who does the reading for her audiobooks does each one of them justice.  I can’t explain how taken I am with Mitord and its people.  I also stand in awe of Karon’s grasp of scripture.  If you haven’t read any of these books, I strongly suggest you give them a chance.

They’re not drama-filled in way of many of our books today but they provide a glimpse into the big heart of a elderly priest (rector) and his bumbling but endearing congregation.  I want to write that kind of book.   Father Tim is a wonderful character who embodies the love of Christ in a very “real” way.  There is a lot of discussion today about writing Christian fiction that is “real.”  Well, nobody gets more real than Karon, but she pulls it off in such a clever and sympatheic way.

I’ve been wondering if I’ve read anyone who does what Karon does and it occurred to me that Pat “Sister Betty” G’Orge Walker does.  Pat’s stories are endearing because of the quirky characters in much the same way Karon’s Mitford series is.  Both authors use the frailities and contradictions and hypocrisies in the lives of Christians to show what “true religion” is. Pat’s books are funny, almost satirical, tales of church people.  You laugh a lot in Karon’s books but they’re not satire. 

Don’t get my wrong; the authors are telling different stories but I believe they have the same heart.  The kind of heart that can look lovingly on a flawed people and show the wonderous power of God.  You can tell both authors love and embrace their flawed characters, too, which makes their stories even more compelling.

If you haven’t read both authors, you must.  While you can start with any book in the Mitford series (I started around book six but went back to one), I recommend starting with book 1, Home at Mitford.  With Pat, I think you can start anywhere.  Her 2007 book, Crusin’ on Desperation, was a definite keeper, and according to Publishers Weekly so is the new one, Somewhat Saved.  I’ve already put it on order at Amazon. 

What can I say?  I want to do what they do.  They make me proud to write Christian fiction.

Enjoy your week!

Angela

P.S. You’ll notice that I didn’t make an excuse for the long delay in posting.  Well, I’m apologizing for it now, not making an excuse.  Thanks for continuing to drop by.