Eucatastrophe Reader

“Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law”

Your Honor Season One REVIEW

In Greek tragedy, the protagonist often suffers for some unbalanced virtue or some desire for a perfection that is not advisable in such an imperfect world. Oedipus insists that he will discover the cause of the plague that afflicts his people, not knowing that by doing so, he will uncover a secret about himself that, when he knows, brings about his own demise. If only he had not cared about his city so much, he might have been spared. If only he had been willing to “let well enough alone” – to let some tragedies go unexplained.  

One might argue that the Showtime series, Your Honor, is a classically tragic Greek play told in modern terms, and that Judge Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston) is an example of a classic hero in the Classical Greek tradition of tragedy writing. Judge Desiato is regarded by all who know him as an incorruptible, fair, and noble soul. In the opening scenes, we can see that he cares about justice but has a keen eye for mercy. He resists corruption, goes out of his way to uphold the laws and the just society they represent. Furthermore, he loves his son and his dog.

And then the Fates open up a wormhole into his life to try him by fire. When Michael’s son, driving through a seedy section of New Orleans, accidentally strikes Rocco Baxter,  the 17 year old son of “the most violent crime family in the history of New Orleans” riding a motorcycle on a deserted street, Judge Michael Desiato makes a calculated decision to do whatever he can to spare that son the certain revenge that he knows would soon follow if Jimmy Baxter, Rocco’s father, ever discovers who it was driving the car that day.

A father’s love soon overwhelms all other moral concerns and, over ten episodes, we watch as the noble hero, Michael Desiato, is dragged by his original compromise into a seemingly endless descent into criminality himself. By the time the final curtains are drawn to the end of season one, Michael “Oedipus” Desiato, clutches his own dying son, shot in the neck by a bullet intended for Rocco’s brother – shot with a gun purchased with the judge’s own hush money by a brother of one of Desiato’s own innocent victims. Karma is not kind to him for letting one virtue compromise all others. In one scene, Judge Desiato tells a juror that she should care more for her daughter than for some abstract justice. In advice that he himself clearly follows, he says, “Nothing is more precious than her. Not principle, not courage, not conscience. “In the last episode as Michael’s cover-ups and crimes in the defense of his son are exposed, he insists to one of those who has found him out, “Justice and principle? Do you think either of those take precedence over the life of your own child? Ever?”

The script writers of this series are clearly going to make the case that Judge Michael Desiato should be allowed to express his love for his son; Just not by using the powers granted him by the State to pursue justice for the victims of violent crimes. For this betrayal of the innocent in the courts of justice, “the gods” will that the judge be made to pay, and it is an ironic and targeted sentence when it comes due.  

“Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law,” Antigone says in Sophocles famous play, Antigone. The script writers of this Showtime series have clearly taken the side of Sophocles that the children of powerful men cannot be allowed to become more important to them than the children of their neighbors, the well-being of the innocent, and Justice itself. Some recent political figures and their sons immediately come to mind.  

Question for Comment: One of the complicating factors that cast a shadow over every decision that Judge Desiato makes in this story is the violence of certain sub-populations of the city he serves and corruption of the law enforcement agencies of the same. In short, the dearth of morality in the environment disincentivizes moral actions makes moral behavior unwise. The city itself eventually becomes the source of all of its most virtuous citizens’ inability to make virtue their highest priority. To what extent is the moral demise of Judge Michael Desiato something to be laid at the doorstep of the whole community? To what extent is his moral demise his and his alone?

“Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act”

11/22/63 REVIEW

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time (18:30 UTC) on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. I turned a year old a few hours later on November 23. Had I not come so early, my mom tells me, I might have been born in Massachusetts – an event that might have been devastating to my Vermont identity. This eight hour miniseries (11/22/1963) based on the novel by Stephen King, stars James Franco as Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from 2015 who goes back in time to try and prevent the assassination of JFK. Over the course of a three year period, he takes a job as an English teacher in a Texas high school and attempts to spy on Lee Harvey Oswald so as to determine if killing him would prevent the assassination from ever taking place. Alas, Jake discovers that history has a tenacious hold on events as they unfolded and fights back whenever he begins to draw closer to succeeding at his mission.

Week after week, the forces of fate conspire to frustrate his intentions. The closer he gets, the more “historical resistance” Jake experiences until 11/22/63 arrives. I won’t spoil the plot.

I highly enjoyed the series for a number of reasons.

One, I got to see what all the cars looked like when I was a year old. And what the music sounded like. And how people were wearing their hair, their suits, and their dapper hats.

Two, I liked the way that fate seems to fight to hang on to its original story but that it is not omnipotent against a tenacious will. IT is as though fate has a current that requires a rugged focus to alter. “Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act” Steven King wrote in the novel version of the story.

Three, it reminded me that even if you are involved in the most significant of historical events, what happens is never really quite as important to you as whether or not you found and got to keep love in your life.

Four, I learned a few things about JFK assassination conspiracy theories.

I recommend it.

Question for Comment: Where were you when the most significant public event of your lifetime took place?

"it is an unusual sensation to learn that there is a secret in this house I am actually privy to."

Downton Abbey REVIEW

In episode of season five of Downton Abbey, Lord Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, figures out a secret that his wife, his daughter, his sister, his mother, and one of his tenant’s had kept him in the dark about. His wife, the Lady Grantham informs him that particular members of the family do not know and that he should leave it to the secret keepers to tell. She asks him not to tell any of the others that he knows. To this request, he says, rather generously, that he intends to maintain the silence.

“Very well. I must admit that it is an unusual sensation to learn that there is a secret in this house I am actually privy to but I will be silent if you wish.”

The poignancy of this act is somewhat more profound than it might seem on the surface because, in fact, every plot line, every story arch, every scene almost has some aspect of this dynamic at work. Everyone in Downton Abbey has a secret they want to keep to themselves at some point and everyone finds out about someone else’s secret and must decide who to tell and not tell. If you are a fan of the series, I would challenge you to a game. How many character’s secrets can you think of off the top of your head?

• What are Mary Crawley’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Edith Crawley’s secrets?
• Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Lord Robert Crawley’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Lady Cora Crawley’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What were Sybil’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Tom Branson’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Matthew Crawley’s secrets?
• Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are cousin Rose MacClare’s secrets?
• Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Violet Crawley’s secrets?
• Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?
• What are Lady Isobel Painswick’s secrets?
• Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?

Ask yourself the same questions about all the downstairs characters as well What are Carson’s secrets? Who knows about them and who remains in the dark?

How about Mrs. Hughes? Anna Smith? Sarah O’Brien? Mr. Bates’? Thomas Barrow? Mr. Molesely? Mrs. Patmore? Daisey Mason? James Kent? Violet's butler, Sprat? Denker, Or Phylis Baxter?

Even the pig farmer, Timothy Drewe has a whopping secret that he keeps from his wife. They all have secrets and yet they all live in this one community - indeed, one house that, though palatial, is not large enough to keep a secret in forever. Notice how characters are constantly walking in on one another in the middle of conversations or overhearing each other. Notice how many times you see people reflected in mirrors or through glass. Some, like Barrow, have their antennas out, seeking the abbey’s subterranean conversation waves for gossip, rumor, and scuttlebutt. Some stumble onto the secrets unaware without looking. Others are, like Robert Crawley, blind to just about all of them until almost the end, though they happen right before their very noses.

Someone has a wife. Someone was divorced. Someone is getting a divorce. Someone is ill. Someone has a prison record. Someone was raped. Someone knows who it was. Someone is gay. Someone had an affair. Someone is in love with the chauffeur. Someone had a nephew who dissented during the war. Someone used to be in the theater. Someone had a child out of wedlock. Someone had a fling with an African American jazz singer. Someone is trying to sabotage a wedding. Someone is broke. Someone is in love with someone else’s beau. Someone is sneaking out of the house. Someone may have caused Lady Grantham to miscarry. Someone had a short indiscretion with a lady’s maid. Someone is sneaking into someone else’s room at night. Someone knows where Robert Crawley’s dog is. Someone has a book about birth control in her night stand. Someone has married someone she does not love out of pity. Someone has adopted the neighbor’s illegitimate child without telling their spouse. Someone burns evidence. And so on and so on. The costumes in the show are stunning but everyone wears fig leaves.

We all wear fig leaves. "Oh you who use words," says Orson Scott Card, "You are such liars."

Question for Comment: The engines that the plot lines of Downton Abbey run on are love, change, and secrets. The whole thing is an exploration of how people live together over time by hiding from one another and by strategically revealing themselves to each other as they wander through their individual pilgrimages in life, hiding from shame - seeking acceptance. Think of your own little Downton Abbey. What secrets do you hide from others? Who has figured them out? Who hasn’t? What secrets of others in life do you know? What keeps you from betraying confidences? What secrets are being kept from you? Is it best that you not know them?