Action!

Every now and again the gods of television offer up something nice you actually want badly. Too often it's something you don't need but buy anyway. The 1999 series Action came out last week. I was wanting that pretty badly. It's such a hoot. It turned out when I put the taped episodes on dvdr I was missing 2 episodes. It's nice to have all 13. Jay Mohr stars as Peter Dragon, head of Dragonfire Films, a small studio in a partnership deal with a larger studio. They have their own section of the lot. As we join their life, already in progress, it's premiere night. Peter Dragon's new summer blockbuster, Slow Torture, is opening. Enter Wendy Ward, played by Illeana Douglas, a former child star, now a hooker. After a great slapstick pratt fall, with lots of panty, Peter hires her to go see his new picture with him. Peter's Slow Torture bombs, and she's the only one who will tell him the truth. It stinks. After spending the night together, Peter hires Wendy to be his new vice president of development . The rest of the series takes us along Peter's path as he tries to resurrect his newly sinking career. And it's a filthy, cus-filled, laugh-fest journey. I loved it, made me laugh, but many in America didn't find it funny and Fox axed the show around it's 8th episode. It ran again on some other cable channel. Now it's on dvd and the swearing is unbleeped. So nice. There was a lot of beeping. There are a great bunch of character actors playing a great bunch of characters. I especially liked Buddy Hacket as Peter's Uncle Lonnie, head of security at Dragonfire films. He's a good man to know, he knows where the blood and piss guy lives. And the blood and piss guy knows Doctor Lee, the shady liposuctionist. These are services you need in Hollywood, especially when your star shows up 50 pounds over weight. Doctor Lee will suck that 50 out of her and do it faster than allowed by law. "Sure, it hurt like hell!" R. Lee Emery plays the director Titus Scroad, he's got an chemical dependency problem, something he shares with the male lead Holden Van Dorn. Lee Arenberg plays the big studio head, he's a real treat, that Bobby G, with his big schlong. Bobby is also the new husband of Peter's ex-wife. There's some twisted shit up in that house. Nice house though. Jarad Paul plays the script's writer Adam Rafkin, said to be based on Adam Rifkin. It's such an angry show, so hate filled, at times uncomfortable. But, with train wreck fascination, it draws your eye. The swearing draws your ear. At least mine, and then the  story hooked me in and kept me there through the end. The story has a nice small arc and ends at a good point. It's like a nice slice of pie. You eat it and you're full, you know there's more, but you don't really need it and that second helping just might not be as good tasting as you thought it would.