Well, as some miserable ol' sod said, "all good things come to an end". Yes, that's right, we have finally finished all seven seasons of The West Wing. It took us less than the expected year to finish them all and I must say it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
But rather than shedding any tears over Josh, CJ, Donna and the gang, we have decided to jump straight back into dvd boxset world and are now watching Season One of Heroes. For those of you not in the know, this is a kitschy, comic-book style series about a group of people who find themselves with superpowers. It has a totally implausible plot, several different characters, some very dodgy acting, and we love it! It is the ultimate in guilty-pleasure television.
On a completely different note, but on the same subject of heroes I have been listening to a series on RTE Radio One about whistleblowers. It was produced by a guy I went to school with. It just finished up over the weekend but I thought it was an excellent series.
The last programme was about Frank Serpico, the police officer that exposed corrupion in the New York police department. He made for a great interview and told his story well. He's in his 70s now, a real straight-talking New York Italian-American. He was a total character - I thought he was quite funny (though I'm not too sure if he was meaning to be).
He told of one incident, when his colleague were finding out that he was going to go public, where a shady character pulled him aside. The guy said 'Do you know, one of these days your people are going to turn on you?' Apparently Serpico replied 'Who? The Italians?' !
I was amazed by how he managed to keep going in the face of such pressure and was impressed by his sense of integrity. It was a real David and Goliath story, about how one small man fought a huge organisation. And won. About how one person can make a difference. Very inspiring.
For those of you interested, you can still hear the programmes online at www.rte.ie/radio1/whistleblowers. I would also recommend the film, Serpico, with Al Pacino (pic above).
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5 comments:
sally and i keep wishing bartlet was our president. maybe our govt would then find enuf $ for teachers, child heathcare, infrastructure, etc.
(but they found 200,000,000,000 for the fookin' war this year per todays headlines)
(keep happy thoughts, ben)
glad the bloggo's are back . . .
apparently I'm not feeling too funny today, huh?
luv to all, the ben
Yeah, maybe Ben, but you are allowed a day off! Anyway, your thoughts are spot on. I think anyone who has ever seen West Wing would want him for President. Maybe in a parallel universe eh? Here's my happy word for you for the day - Cohibas!
K
When I was at St. Mary's nursing school, I had that poster of Serpico up on my dorm room wall. I also had one of Al Pacino from the Godfather. Sister Charlotte did room check every week and she hated those posters. She said it was terrible to be getting dressed with those men watching. Therese
ahh cohibas, can't wait for xmas.
you know that jackass bush is still giving cuba a hard time. i wonder how much his family and the other congressmen/senators lost when the revolution took out that corrupt batista and his mafia friends?
i gotta stop reading the news and buy comic books.
the ben
Keith and I LOVE Heroes. We never miss it. glad you guys are getting into it as well.
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