What would happen if terrorists got their hands on nuclear weapons and managed to set them off? This is the premise of the Jericho. As the series begins, Jake played by Skeet Ulrich, returns home after the death of his grandfather in hopes of gaining his inheritance so that he may make a fresh start. Since Jake has been the black sheep of the family this is akin to the return of the prodigal. Just as he is about to leave town Armageddon is unleashed. In spite of past misdemeanors the present crisis affords Jake an opportunity to use his unique skills and makes him a stalwart support for his father the mayor. The series appears to revolve around him.

State sponsored xenophobia is not a new phenomenon. The internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War 2 had its counterpart in Canada and no less a luminary than David Suzuki was among those so interred. This example is in our recent past but for historical examples see the 1755 Expulsion of the Acadians in my native Nova Scotia; the subject of Longfellow’s poem Evangeline. In 1941 the Empire of Japan had just staged the devastatingly perfidious raid on Pearl Harbour and in reaction to this event all west coast citizens of Japanese descent were interred. What threat these people, many of whom were third- and forth—generation citizens of both countries, represented is unclear in hindsight but they were a visible target for our outrage and not only were they moved to concentration camps but their possessions were confiscated providing a definite economic motive for this action. For another illustration of this event in the movies see 1999’s Snow Falling on Cedars based on the book of the same name by David Guterson. We may not have sent these people to gas chambers as Hitler did the Jews in Europe but our actions were no less reprehensible. To say that this was the internees while they were busy profiting from their misfortune.

A scant 3 years after playing the ring leader in the movie Mean Creek the 25-year-old Scott Mechlowicz plays a sports jock university student who has hopes of a ticket to the Olympics in Gymnastics, good grades, excellent health, all the female companions he could wish for, and a hot motorcycle. He also has bad dreams, insomnia, and a budding relationship with an enigmatic philosopher who runs a gas station and shares his predilection for keeping nocturnal hours. Stunt doubles perform the near-impossible looking feats on rings and horse but the actors have to look the part. Scott, who plays Dan Millman has obviously spent some time in the gym adding muscularity to his lank six-foot frame. I found the movie to have a plodding start and although gymnastics are central to the theme the practise sessions seem to lack interest—the moves performed seem too divorced from the average couch potatoes’ reality and voyeurism soon lacks excitement—these are beautiful people.

When Millman’s nightmares become reality it is his philosopher friend who helps lift him above the realities of an injury that doctors expect will confine him to a wheel chair for life to a chance at actually making the Olympics after all. This being a movie the philosophy behind the title Peaceful Warrior is not well explained and I’m not certain I want to buy into it. In the end it is Dan’s relationship with ‘Socrates’ and the young lady who appears to be his daughter that redeems the movie.

Although this is a movie about middle and high school children it is not a movie for children. When Sam gets picked on by the school bully he and his older brother resolve to teach that bully a lesson. Together with a girl he likes, a friend, and his brother’s buddy played by Scott Mechlowicz they invite the bully to a river “party” during which they plan to teach him a lesson in humility. Along the way Sam gets cold feet when he discovers the insecure individual behind the bullying façade but finds himself powerless to stop the events that have been set in motion and end so tragically. This is at base a high school tragedy though we are lead to believe that Sam learns valuable lessons along the way. However Marty, the character played by Scott Mechlowicz compounds his guilt by stealing his older brother’s car and staging a robbery to finance his getaway resulting in another murder. Although well-acted and produced this is not a feel-good movie. Scott Mechlowicz who was 22 at the time this movie was shot plays a sixteen-year old.

This is a Disney production. Kyle is a teenager who suddenly walks buck naked out of an urban forest with no verbal skills, no knowledge of his past—and no belly button. He is adopted into his case-worker’s nuclear family where he quickly assimilates language and shows a genius level aptitude for math and computer science. Exhibiting a wide-eyed childish interest in all that surrounds him he is also totally socially naïve. His adoptive mother becomes his advocate and finds herself defending his interests even in the face of her own husband. His new brother and sister are both jealous of the attention paid this new arrival, and suspicious of what his past may be. Much of the humour of this series is provided by the tensions created by adding this new dynamic to the family relationships. A brother who does not understand the concept of deceit can be a liability when you attempt to sneak home after curfew.

This is a high-concept series but the characters are so engaging that they force one to buy in. I’m glad to report that it has been renewed for its third season.

Despite the preponderance of dreck on TV—even the venerable CBC is resorting to Survivor type programming—every now and then one encounters a program that rises above the norm to provide intellectual stimulation. This series with the “E” reversed to a 3, which is still running focuses on an FBI agent, his fellow investigators and his family. Although each episode features a crime investigation violence and death are not the focus here and despite the occasional car chases this is not an action series.

It is interesting to see the slacker of Northern Exposure, Rob Morrow, playing a driven FBI agent who, in spite of his 45 years, has managed to keep his figure and if anything has trimmed down. He has his own apartment, which we have yet to see, but spends most of his time at home of his widower Jewish father played by Judd Hirsh; who in this series plays much the same role he inhabited in Independence Day though here he has two sons. It is the younger brother, Charlie, a genius Cal Tech professor who supplies the unique hook for this series when he gets drawn into his brother’s cases to used applied mathematical theory to help solve the cases upon which his brother is working. This is the classic absentminded professor who must drive his grad student lecturers crazy when he forgets all else in zeroing in on near impossible to solve mathematical problems to the exclusion of all else. The small detail of how the FBI compensates him for his time is a detail that is not important here. This is a gifted young man so driven by his interests that he is absolutely blasé about the fact that he is on a first-name basis with the director of the NAS although his brother is incredulous that he’d neglect to mention such an important detail.

Although applied mathematics gets used in each episode it manages not to lose those of us who still have problems balancing our cheque books. The plots wisely centre on inter-personal relationships among a multi-racial cast and a lot of emphasis is placed on the Eppes family. A younger brother who still feels driven to prove himself to an older sibling; the similarity in nature between the two brothers, and the fact that both are so driven by their professions that they neglect the female relationships that are right under their noses. Papa Eppes would like to become a grandfather.

Based on an autobiographical novel by the playwright, author, and IRA Supporter Brendan Behan who died of alcoholism at 41 in 1964. Behan is played by then 30-year-old Sean Hatosy, an American Actor whose name I’d always miss-pronounced until last night—the accent is on “hat” the o is pronounced as a short e. The joys of the importation of foreign names into English.

As the movie begins we find Brendan strapping sticks of dynamite to his inner thighs. No word on whether Behan wore boxers or briefs but Hatosy definitely wears briefs. Whatever his choice of undergarment may I be forgiven for observing that I find this a rather ‘ballsy’ move and although Brendan makes it through customs on his trip to England he is captured soon afterward while assembling the bomb and sentenced as a 16-year-old offender to Borstal Prison for boys—the alternative would have been hanging. At Borstal he meets robbers, a rapist, a Canadian, several Jewish boys but he is the only Irishman. Fortunately for him the governor of the institution to which he is assigned is uniquely liberal in his outlook. There are walls but no barbed wire or locks but then the surrounding area has been cleared as this is 1939 and an invasion by Hitler is apprehended, the area is mined, and there is an army base just down the road. The other unique circumstance is the arrival of the Governor’s daughter, an artist who would rather be working in Paris—but it is occupied by Hitler.

Although the setting here is a prison and Brendan’s roommates are young criminals many of whom are likely to re-offend upon release and enter the adult prison system the violence, bullying, and intimidation to which such places are prone, although not glossed over, are not the subject of this film. Indeed, we are given the impression that Brendan can look after himself; he loses a prison-wide wrestling tournament only as a result of a moment’s inattention. What we see are the relationships that develop between the young men, their warders, and teachers, and above all Elizabeth, the governor’s daughter. It is the combination of these circumstances that leads a rebellious young man to a life in letters rather than a life of crime; the pity is that the bottle so shortened his life. Although this is not the kind of movie Rogers or Blockbuster is likely to stock I am thankful that it is one which Amazon makes available even if the price is steeper than I’d prefer to pay. Despite the subject matter this is a warm-hearted movie saddened only by the knowledge that Behan lived only a scant 20 years after the movie closes.