11 posts tagged “mikecaffee”

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.

Episode 5 is a violent banger!  Mike has a really scary incident of brain damage seizure, and could have killed both himself and Kath, though he finally comes out of his lack of memory and automatic violence to let her go.  Poor Kath!  She has to tell him she is pregnant, and he seems happy at the idea.  But during one of his roughneck assignments he vandalizes a beautiful suburban home for Freddie and likes the place so much he wants to buy it!  I am surprised that the bank would tell the realtor who Mike really is!  Around my town, the banks have long served as money laundering places, by selling prime real estate to drug dealers, both here and along the beautiful coast, especially on our barrier islands.  But that is aside!  Mike sees only the lovely house, polished and beautiful, and the manicured yard with lush grass and flower beds, and he sees his Kath in that setting.  But Kath is not exactly convinced.  She is facing the reality of who she and Mike really are! 

The best part of this episode for me was when MamaCaffee took poor Colin to meet his father, Judd, the once-powerful politico on The Hill, but now reduced by age and illness to a chair-bound cripple who hardly knows who or where he is, let alone who Colin or his mother might be!  Rose was probably only doing it to hurt Judd's mean wife, but it was still a good thing to do.  The scene where Colin understands the condition of the father he has sought for many years is excellent.

What a wonderful Episode, this episode 4 of Brotherhood on ShowTime.  Every actor had a great new stab at something different, and the very best part to me was the Adventure of Grandma's Blue Car!  I loved every minute of it, having once had a teenage child who would sneak off at nite trying our Dad's big station wagon, and getting caught by the city cops, who called us to come rescue the fool!  Lucky he never scraped that car of Dad would have exploded!  But seeing Kat and Eileen together was just wonderful for me!  And when she took out that gun and said Mike had taught her how to use it, and all that, GREAT!  Of course, seeing clearly that Granny is jealous of Kat, and being mean as a snake to Colin too, was very good!  So maybe we should ask just which man is Colin's father?  Did his errant mama, Granny's sister, have a fling with one of Granny's boy friends?  Is that why Granny is so irate with poor Colin?  Well, back to the girlies--smoking pot and sharing sexual images, that was just great!  Now I am left with a wonderful image of Mike (Jason) as a wild animal in bed or on the floor or anywhere he can catch her!  I just love that image which they leave there for me to imagine instead of showing it to me!  I am from that old school which prefers to not SEE everything concretely, but rather to be told, with hints and laughter, something which I can elaborate upon in my own nasty Granny imainagion.  Thanks, BrotherHood for really good episode!

Since Brotherhood, Showtime's rough and ready series of Irish Mafia violence and background families, has entered a really great second season, I for one would like a whole rundown on the crooks and creeps facing my Mike!  I found a really nice image of the slimey Moe with a bit about him.  It's a very nice piece for my photo files.  But I would really, really appreciate a picture and rundown on Silent John!  I know he is just another roughneck assassin, engaged in murdering Freddy Cork's supposed enemies, and he will probably, like the deceased Pete, be somewhat worried about whether or not all his digging and delving in that mysterious Overpass where he deposits his victims will give him cancer!  But I perversely find him extremely attractive.  Maybe it is because he doesn't talk too much!  Of maybe he just cuts a nice masculine figure in that t-shirt, plus the tatoos.  But I certainly would appreciate a nice portrait of him, like the one of silly Moe who lies and cheats all his comrades from Mike Caffee to Freddie Cork!  He seems to understand Declan very well.  Is the goregous blond he was with at the Irish Wedding at the end of Season One his wife, or just one of the more expensive ladies of the evening from the establishment he runs for Freddy?  And I have missed learning his name.  Is it Irish?  Or just humdrum American wasteland.  I liked him a bit more when he gave money off his roll for Pete's funeral, showing up Freddie and Moe for the pikers they really are.

Looking at the script and acting for Episode 3 of Brotherhood, I just have to say WOW! That fellow playing Declan, the rogue cop who clobbered Mike at the end of the first season, has really gotten some wonderful actor chances!  And he takes them ALL!  But what might happen if slime-ball Moe (and isn't he GOOD at his role?) accidentally lets fall the knowledge that Dec is the one who almost murdered Mike?  And now Freddie Cork is wiggling around trying not to have to battle the Italian Mafia?  Great looks from Freddie, that waffling around, trying to look brave, trying to be smart!  I liked it that Silent John, Freddie's private assassin, was the first to do the honorable thing and kick in cash for Pete's funeral.  I wonder that SJ hasn't reported more of Moe's slimey sneakiness straight to Freddie.  Or has he, and Freddie keeps it to himself!  Nice writing!  And I  liked it that Eileen admitted her friendship with poor dead Pete, and it was nice of her to go to that funeral, where only she and Mike, whom she has formerly loathed, are the only ones there.  Very nice.  And now we see the use of Cousin Colin!  He makes an excellent replacement as sidekick to Mike.  After all, he really is family, and has in the past admired Mike as a replacement father.  Mike can use all the help he can get.  I really enjoyed this episode, and will probably watch it several times on ShowTime, which offers it at many times and nites!  Thanks to Showtime for giving us this great series!

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The key to Jason Isaac's acting in this great series on ShowTime, Brotherhood, is the look in those beautiful blue eyes.  Here he is, puzzled, almost vague, not knowing exactly where he is and what he is doing there. 

The series has definitely taken a step toward real differences with the ordinary "crime family" stories we know so well, usually involving large, fat-bellied men with black hair and mean faces, big ham-hands, and two or three guns secretly stashed around the over-large body.  I really prefer this story of people who are not cliches to me--descendants of Irish immigrants, or even Irishmen like Cousin Colin who wants nothing more than a strong family of iron men like Mike Caffee.

Not only Mike has changed!  Viewing the prevues of Episode 3 provided on Shotime's website for Brotherhood, the dilemma of poor Irishcop, Declan, the former long-time, in-depth childhood and homey friend of both Caffee brothers has to make the choice--be tested for drugs or turn totally into that thing he hates, a rat stoolie spying on his beloved Caffees!  Because he surely understands what he will be doing at the possible chance to return to his former rectitude as a state cop standing straight and tall for love of that weird-looking shallow beauty parlor wifey who condemns him and their marriage because of his drunken confession of his failures. 

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Jason did just great last year on his series BROTHERHOOD series, playing the stone-cold killer, the man among men who killed anyone standing in his way andburied them under the infamous overpass!  But at the end of last year, Mike lay on the asphalt parking lot with his head smashed by rogue cop Declan Diggs, an old friend, so drunk he had lost all control and beat Mike from behind till it looked as if that was the end of our beloved Jason!  But not so!  The premier episode of this second seaon on Showtime gives us Mike Caffee, about six months into recuperating, with a damaged brain, little memory, seizures, strange bouts of simplay staring into space like a statue!  Jason does a wonderful job of it all!  Fans like me want to reach out and pat his poor blank face and say, "Poor Baby, everything will be alright."  But we are definitely not guaranteed that by any of this episode when Mike goes blankly wild as he tries against Freddie Cork's specific orders to collect money from the brother-in-law of a Mafioso Don and instead murders both bil and his Mafia guard!  The changes in Mike are there for all to see in Jason's expert alteration of the confident killer of last year into this damaged man longing to return to former strength and self-confidence.  Wonderful Acting!