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Duncan
Citizen
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 1274
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 1:52 pm: |     |
UTTERLY RIVETING
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
Wayne Gretzky |
Mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 2373
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 2:14 pm: | |
What is this show about? |
Duncan
Citizen
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 1275
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 2:25 pm: | |
The better question might be what isnt this show about. Its based on the pulitzer prize winning plays of the same name by Tony Kushner.
Angels in America is really two full-length plays. Part I: Millennium Approaches won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This play explores "the state of the nation"--the sexual, racial, religious, political and social issues confronting the country during the Reagan years, as the AIDS epidemic spreads.
Two of the main characters have AIDS. One, Prior, is a sane, likeable man who wonders if he is crazy as he is visited by ghosts of his ancestors, and selected by angels to be a prophet (but the audience sees the ghosts and angels too). The other main character, Roy Cohn, based on the real political figure, is a hateful powerbroker who refuses the diagnosis of AIDS because only powerless people get that sickness.
A rabbi opens the play, saying that in the American "melting pot" nothing melts; three Mormons try to reconcile their faith with the facts of their lives. Belize, an African-American gay nurse, is the most compassionate and decent person in the play, along with Hannah, the Mormon mother who comes to New York to try to untangle the mess of her son and daughter-in-law's marriage. In contrast to their commitment, Prior's lover, Louis, abandons him in cowardly fear of illness. The play portrays a wide range of reactions to illness, both by the patients and by those around them. Included is the realization that much of the nation's reaction is political and prejudiced.
The second play, Part II: Perestroika (winner of a Tony Award), continues the story, with the angel explaining to Prior that God has abandoned his creation, and that Prior has been chosen to somehow stop progress and return the world to the "good old days." Prior tells the angel he is not a prophet; he's a lonely, sick man. "I'm tired to death of being tortured by some mixed-up, irresponsible angel. . . Leave me alone."
Ironically, Belize is Roy Cohn's nurse, as Cohn--even as he is dying in his hospital bed--tries to manipulate the system to get medication and special treatment, and to trick the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg into singing him a lullaby. Meanwhile, the Mormon mother, Hannah, manages to help save the sanity and integrity of her daughter-in-law, Harper; and she also is a good caregiver for Prior.
At the end of the play, we see Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah sitting on the rim of the fountain in Central Park with the statue of the Bethesda angel. They say that when the Millennium came, everyone who was "suffering, in the body or the spirit, [and] walked through the waters of the fountain of Bethesda, would be healed, washed clean of pain."
These four characters represent Jews and Christians and agnostics; homosexuals and heterosexuals; blacks and whites; men and women; caregivers and patients; two generations--the American mix, in this case, caring about each other. Somehow, although the real angels in this play seem inept and reactionary, these folks together at the Bethesda angel fountain seem competent contributors to the future.
The above taken from NYU's Literature database
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
Wayne Gretzky |
L'Angelo Misterioso
Citizen
Username: Misterioso
Post Number: 25
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 2:25 pm: | |
Hmmm - how do you synopsize a 6 hour long drama? I haven't seen all of it yet, so I can't do it justice anyway - but:
It takes place in 1985, and follows the semi-overlapping stories of 1) a gay couple - Louis, who's Jewish, and Prior, descendant of an old-line on-the-Mayflower WASP family. Prior develops AIDS, and Louis, who finds himself unable to deal with the disease, abandons Prior - but at a heavy price of guilt and self-loathing. Louis works in the same office as 2) Joe, a young attorney from Salt Lake City, clerking for a judge in NYC. Joe is in a disfunctional marriage. He's a self-denying gay who ultimately comes out, with much angst. His wife Harper is, at best, emotionally unstable, and addicted to Valium. They both have heavy guilt issues over their lives as they are vs. their LDS upbringing. Joe has been befriended and mentored professionally by 3) Roy Cohn (yes, the Rosenberg case Roy Cohn), who tries to seduce and corrupt him, both literally and figuratively. Cohn is also dying of AIDS.
That's the bare bones. Yes, it's another AIDS story ... but that's not REALLY what it's about. It's about love, and death, and coping with life, and living with family history and family obligation, living with God and THOSE obligations, personal responsibility and ones responsibilty for others, and more.
It's not nearly as grim or as ponderous as that make it sound - the synopsis gives no hint of how wonderfully well the story is told. Oh yeah - it's also amazingly funny.
Maharishi University Class of '67 |
Mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 2374
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 2:42 pm: | |
Wow. Certainly not boring! Almost makes me want to order HBO.
Thanks. |
apm
Citizen
Username: Apm
Post Number: 153
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 3:54 pm: | |
I only caught about an hour on Sunday night and it was excellent. I would like to see the whole thing. Anyone know the schedule?? |
algebra2
Citizen
Username: Algebra2
Post Number: 1478
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 4:03 pm: | |
I'm hoping they're playing it on Comcast On Demand ... if so, APM and MEM, you're welcome to come over and watch with us. I'll check it out. |
us2innj
Citizen
Username: Us2innj
Post Number: 935
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 4:12 pm: | |
The first three hours aired this past Sunday, with the second three hours airing Sunday, Dec 14th from 8 to 11pm.
HBO will run the first three hours in one hour installments this week. They will then run hours 4, 5 and 6 next week in one hour installments.
The entire six hours will air complete sometime early January.
I have not seen it on the HBO On Demand menu yet. |
us2innj
Citizen
Username: Us2innj
Post Number: 936
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 4:17 pm: | |
Part I
Sunday, December 7 - 8PM/7C
(HBO2) Dec. 8 (9PM/8C) and Dec. 13 (9PM/8C) Full Schedule
Part II
Sunday, December 14 - 8PM/7C
(HBO2) Dec. 15 (9PM/8C) and Dec. 20 (9PM/8C) Full Schedule
Parts I & II
HBO Signature will play the entire six chapters of ANGELS IN AMERICA in order
January 3, beginning at 6:00 p.m. In addition, HBO Signature will play one chapter
every Sunday night (9:30 p.m.), beginning January 4.
Individual Hours
Hour 1 - Dec. 8 (8PM/7C), Dec. 11 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 22 (11PM/10C) more times
Hour 2 - Dec. 9 (8PM/7C), Dec. 12 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 22 (12:10AM) more times
Hour 3 - Dec. 10 (8PM/7C), Dec. 13 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 23 (11PM/10C)
Hour 4 - Dec. 15 (8PM/7C), Dec. 18 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 29 (11PM/10C)
Hour 5 - Dec. 16 (8PM/9C), Dec. 19 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 29 (midnight)
Hour 6 - Dec. 17 (8PM/7C), Dec. 20 (10PM/9C) and Dec. 30 (11PM/10C) |
Duncan
Citizen
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 1276
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 10:25 pm: | |
Comcast cable on demand has the first part available in chunks or as a whole. Showed up tonight on the "on demand" menu.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"
Wayne Gretzky |
Maplewoody
Citizen
Username: Maplewoody
Post Number: 391
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 11:39 pm: | |
I didn't know that Meryl Streep was the Rabbi at Louis's grandmothers' funeral, until the credits rolled.
Al Pacino is good too as Roy Cohn. |
canismajor
Citizen
Username: Canismajor
Post Number: 240
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2003 - 11:57 pm: | |
It's a welcome respite from the absurd Carnivale series. It's been awhile since HBO turned out a clunker, but I think they get the booby prize for that one.
Me, I'm just biding time until the return of the Sopranos in March. Pretty psyched for the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season too. |
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