23 posts tagged “brotherhood”

Without the Caffees, without word that there will be a third season, I am devastated!  So I look with admiration on Jason as Mark Brydon, in The State Within, which has been nominated for a Golden Globe, as best series on TV, and Jason for Best Lead ACtor in a series as Mark Brydon.

I cannot stop looking at the nice pictures Showtime keeps putting up to show me Michael Caffee from Brotherhood, and still hope for more next year.  Of course 2008 will give us Escorial Conspiracy, with Jason as the lead, and the much anticipated film GOOD, from pre-WWII Germany and good people falling into the Nazi trap for the sake of renewed German power and prosperity, with Jason as an intelectual victim and Viggo Mortenson in the lead.  This film is being touted as an entry in the Cannes Film Festival Best Film competition.  It looks SOOOO good...GOOD.

And of course I cannot tire of the beautiful Lucius Malfoy from Order of the Phoenix!  I do so wish there were a way to have Lucius as an important presence in the last two Harry Potter films! 

JIPosseGang

Mike Caffee can hardly miss being classified as a sociopath, with his proclivity for murder, mayhem, and constant inner anger.  All this is

shown constantly on the mobile factor of actor Jason Isaacs who protrays

him so perfectly.  Mike wants to be King of the Hill! He returned hom after

seven years of undisclosed roaming in the underworld of crime, and now in

this second year if recuperating for near-death at the hands of a drunken cop

who has not yet been discovered as the vicious attacker.  Mike still thinks of

Declan as almost family, a childhood companion on the streets, along with

brother Tommy.  Tommy is a sociopath in his own way, concentrating on

trying to gain polictial power and rule the little state as some sort of dictator,

Though Tommy is not noted as a murderer/criminal, he is a cold fish with his

sexual relationships, and a backstabbing political friend/enemy, seeking only his

own desires for wealth through crooked real estate developement and the

top of the reeking garbag heap which is local politics.  So both brothers have

learned life from their soiciopathic father, that drunkard who beat their mother

and his sons, taught by example to steal from the weak, and take what you

want in life, no matter how it may hurt others.  I have been making videos of

Mike Caffee, and have finally selected the music that suits him and Tommy

perfectly.....THE FIRST INSIDE, writter and performed by Bob Seeger.  Play it

and let me know what you think.

11 The Fire Inside

The local cable just raised our rates so high that us old retirees are now paying over a hundred dollars a month, and HALF of that is for Showtime!  So if Brotherhood is not renewed my husband says we must give up your service!  PLEASE!  I need Brotherhood to save me from those boring reruns of Law and Order and such which my husband loves!  Of course he uses the better of our two sets, while I watch Showtime on our second set, a mediocrity!  But I would rather see Brotherhood snowy and blitzed, that not get to see it at all!  PLEASE!  Renew Brotherhood NOW! I need the Caffees to save me from boredom, ennui, silliness, repetitious junk, and who know what other moral evils!

I DO NOT WANT TO SEE MIKE  CAFFEE ON THE FLOOR/GROUND/ANYWHERE, HALF DEAD AND MAYBE GONE!  noooooooooooooooo. 

IDO NOT WANT TO SEE SILLY TOM CAFFEE WITH A SCRAWNY ANOREXIC BOTTLE BLONDE WHEN HE HAS A BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT WIFE WHO HAS BORNE HIS CHILDREN AND CARES FOR THEM AS BEST SHE CAN!

MOST OF ALL I WANT TO SEE A WHOLE NEW SEASON OF MY FAVORITE TV SERIES, THE ONE I WATCH AT LEAST FOUR NITES A WEEK, SOMETIMES FIVE BECAUSE OF THE WONDERFUL RERUNS, ON SHOWTIE.!

IF THEY CANCEL BROTHERHOOD,  I WILL PROMPTLY CANCEL SHOWTIME, BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY SHOW I WATCH ON THAT EXPENSIVE NETWORK!

Sometimes an actor is too good, too believeable, just too much to handle!

Jason Isaacs is one of those, and in Brotherhood he seems to have absorbed the sociopathic Michael Caffee into himself entirely too well!  Episode 8 is really a sorrowful commentary on these men with completely antisocial personalities. 

I was glad to see Mike realize at last that he simply could not handle being a father to a child with Kath.  Poor foolish Kath, who has paid a stern price for her relationship with Mike.  Helping him, mothering him, trying to manage his brain damage without being murdered by him in a state of seizure, makes it no surprise when she finally sees him as he really is!  Poor dumb woman!  She thought kindness and love could change him into what she wanted him to be!  And perhaps she confused his sexuality and need for some kind of intimacy as love. 

For the first time in the two-year series we are "treated" or is that "mistreated" to the joys of Mike and another man in the local bordello together!  Ugh!  Too bad that had to be included to show us how far down Mike is going in his descent into reality.

And seeing Mike planning and executing his practical plans for eliminating his socialpathic rivals is a very clear wallow through what is probably the truth about such gangs and their actions.  Though I regret seeing it, I feel the truth of it, and hope it will guarantee that I do NOT memorize lines from it as I have from GODFATHER,

I wish I could say that I believe Kath loves Mike Caffee, and that he loves her!  People keep telling him that Kath is the best thing that ever happened to him, but is it really true?

Maybe we need a definition of love!  Mike was right to tell her he could not cope with her having his baby.  I do not see her pregnancy as a light from above!  Maybe, if he had not been beaten by Declan, that wonderful cop who thinks he did the right thing in almost murdering Mike, the sexual heat between Mike and Kath, which is built mainly on old-time memories, could grow into a loving relationship.

Kath describes Mike as an animal in bed.  Is that necessarily love?  Come on now!  Since when does that mean the same thing as treasuring another person, enduring their good and bad sides, making the harsh decisions yourself and not blaming the other companion in life.

If Kath really loved Mike she would know he could not cope with her pregnancy, with her changes, with her presenting him with a child for which he must take a full fatherly responsibility.  I think Kath is lucky Mike made the right decision.  And I think part of his decision should be to move on, move ahead, move past the girl of his youth, and grow up!

If Mike is to survive in the dangerous world of his business -- murder, mayhem, and mobs-- he must find his strength in himself.  He has plenty of it.

When Kath asks Mike about selecting colors for the nursery paint, he says he doesn't know about colors!

Maybe one could study Mike's family experiences, to see just what we might expect from him when it comes to life and being a father.  A good look at his father shows us a mean, angry drunken man who does not know anything at all about being a good father to his sons, or a good husband to his wife.  Mike knows his own father is no example except a bad one.  Mike did his best to replace that horrible father.  The larger problem here is to avoid blame!  When we get too involved in saying "Mike is dysfunctional because of his father," then surely in fairness we must ask, "who do we blame for poor Father's dysfunctionality?"  Is no one to be held accountable for his own actions?  Well, that is a question for smarter people than me! 

Poor Mike!  Picking a  nice innocent eggshell white for the old ceiling, is quite as far as he can go.  When it comes to succky off green, labelled creamy cucumber by some desperate ad-writer, he jokes, "Are we gonna eat it or put it on the wall?" which is just about what that name deserves!  However, succky green it is, and finally Mike, who has spent the day actually worrying and trying to think straight, through his injured brain cells and his injured psychology of non-fatherhood, finally cannot get past knowing the only real fathers he knows are ugly murderer Freddie Cork who strangled the poor boy who loved his oldest son and otherwise likes to watch Michael murder Freddie's victims, but still has all his children (is it 5, at least) playing MONSTER with the two little ones and bragging that he had them baptized because that is what a Catholic must do!  Poor babies!  How will they escape the cycle of murderous father and compliant mother with no morality at all? 

Mike consults brother Tommy about baptizing babies, and finds his three nieces are firmly baptized.  But he must finally decided what to do, and he makes the best decision!  "I can't do it... I just can't do it!  No half and half fatherhood for Michael Caffee, poor Mike!  Poor Kath, who thought he would!

The progressing characters in Brotherhood are really excellent!  Adding Irish cousin, Colin, was a real touch of genius, and the actor is just great!  He adds a fine real Irish touch to the Irish Mob, which had been just a bunch of Americans or pseudo-Americans with expert accents.  This real Irishman with his rather pathetic seeking for a father he cannot have adds another sympathetic character to this group of murderous hoodlums.

I had been wondering just how far poor Mike would go wandering down the pathway to salvation through love and becoming a socially accepted member of suburbia!  The scene in the paint shop was really great!  Mike Caffee the murderer choosing paint for a nursery!  Has he never been a father before now?  I always thought he might be the real father of one of Tommy's girls, but that has been my error, though still a possible secret.  After all, the heat between the actors playing Mike and Eileen, is still there though it may not be deliberate.  Personally have not cared for the blonde Kath, the ease with which she slid back into being Mike's sweetheart when her husband and the father of her kids is still there, and pathetically wishing to be back home.

And about that Freddie Cork!  Seeing him sit there willing to torture and torment and threaten his stupid associate crook just reaffirms what a really nasty creep he is!  Of course the awful way he murdered the boy who loved his son had already given us his true character.  Freddie is way more creepy and murderous that Mike or even Silent John could ever be!  Freddie hides behind his jovial grin and pays others to do the wicked things, as he watches, enjoying the sight of Mike breaking bones for him.  Freddie really ought to die soon!  He can't get much more evil in my sight.