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May 23, 2018

HAP AND LEONARD tackles societal problems in an unapologetic yet humorous manner

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized 1428 elm, black girl nerds, blood and lemonade, bubba ho-tep, dana roberts, elizabeth story, hap and leonard, high fever books, John Picacio, jonita davis, kasey lansdale, michael patrick hicks, petition, review, sundanceTV', susan leighton, terror is our business, the best of joe r lansdale, the big book of hap and leonard

The cancellation of the popular and acclaimed SundanceTV series Hap and Leonard has not sat well with fans.

Jonita Davis for BLACK GIRL NERDS argues that the show was cancelled because tv execs were not comfortable with the show’s uncomfortable content.

There hasn’t been a show in a long tine that embodied so many important tropes depicted in such natural forms. Thee now-cancelled AMC SundanceTV show “Hap and Leonard” took on several problem areas in modern society with an unapologetic yet humorous manner. From the toxic white feminine complacency to the conservative black gay man and the black woman driven to her death by racism and misogyny, the show never shed away from a subject.

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There won’t be another show like “Hap and Leonard”, In fact, the next shows lined up bu SundanceTV center whiteness once again with three white women in the lead and no POC to be found so far. Fortunately, we will have Lansdale’s extensive collection of books about our characters on display and ready to read.

The whole fiasco shows us that, until the tv execs get comfortable airing uncomfortable content, we will never be able to keep a great show like “Hap and Leonard”.

Fans have started the petition: Netflix or Amazon should pick up future seasons of Hap and Leonard!

The Sundance Channel cancelled a much-beloved show with many loyal viewers (that they did little to promote) and after 3 great seasons, there’s are many more Hap and Leonard books ready to be adapted.

One of the prime streaming channels like Netflix or Amazon should and allow the current fans and future fans to find this wonderful series!

For 1428 ELM, Susan Leighton shares a lengthy 2 part interview with Joe R. Lansdale.

From Part 1:

1428 Elm: Let’s talk Bubba Ho-Tep. Knowing that Elvis spent time in Gladewater, were you a fan? What was the genesis for the short story that became one of the most beloved cult classics of all time?

JL: First of all, the genesis for it would be that I grew up with Elvis. Of course, my brother had that loose connection with him. It was almost like he was a distant cousin in a strange way.

In many ways because of him, I discovered all of these different types of music. Without Elvis, a lot of white kids would never have known about black music, country music and folk music because they were all connected to what he did.

That meant a lot to me. So, when I was asked to write an Elvis story, I had this title in my head. Bubba Ho-Tep which I thought would be a funny thing for a mummy story.

Photo by Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

Part 2:

428 Elm: Sorry to hear about the cancellation of this terrific show. What are your takeaways from your time with Sundance and being one of the producers?

JL: James Purefoy and I were talking via email and neither one of us are sad. We had three great seasons. If we would have been able to continue we would have been more enthusiastic to do so. We’re both very content.

Fans were even disappointed and angry. I don’t think there is anything to be angry about. My takeaway is that Sundance treated me very well.

We were hoping it would move somewhere else but it didn’t. It was a wonderful experience. I met some great people.

I am working on the Bottoms which my friend Bill Paxton was supposed to direct. He was such a great guy with such a great vision of the film and his direction would have been awesome.

We have other plans, I’m not going to say what because that’s confidential. I am excited about it. I will be a producer on it. Although I am not the absolute producer on it, I hope to be more involved with it.

I am trying to be a more active producer on other projects of mine or a more absolute producer. So, we’ll see what happens.

Michael Patrick Hicks at HIGH FEVER BOOKS praises the forthcoming collection Terror Is Our Business: Dana Roberts’ Casebook of Horrors
by Joe R Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale.

Terror is Our Business collects the Dana Roberts stories, previously published elsewhere, into a single volume, along with a new story, “The Case of the Ragman’s Anguish,” that is exclusive to this story. The book is split pretty evenly, with the first half devoted to stories written solely by Joe R. Lansdale, with the back-half featuring stories co-written by Joe and his daughter, Kasey Lansdale.

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Following Kasey’s introduction to this collection, we are introduced to a woman named Jana, initially in a stand-alone story focused solely on her encounter with the paranormal, before joining Dana’s investigations for the final two casebooks. Jana is a bit more my style – she’s fun, witty, has a bit of mouth on her, says things without thinking, and is pretty much always in way over her head. Dana, on the other hand, is very reserved and proper, an upper-class sort of personality. Jana is her Watson to Dana’s Holmes, and becomes our window into the world of the supernormal for the collection’s back-half. Once Kasey and Jana hit the pages, the stories become livelier and Dana finally has a counterpoint, a polar opposite, to act against. The burgeoning friendship between these personalities present an entertaining foil. The last two stories present supernormal threats that are also unabashedly Lovecraftian, which hit a particular sweet spot for me. While Jana presents an airier narrative voice than the stuffier gentleman author transcribing a moneyed ghost hunter’s adventures, the introduction of cosmic threats really tickled me, even if the stories still follow the by-now well-established Dana Roberts’ Casebook story formula.

All in all, Terror is Our Business: Dana Roberts’ Casebook of Horrors is a largely delightful introduction to this investigator, but it took a while for me to connect with the work as a whole. It’s not really until the last couple stories that everything began to click for me, and it’s clear that Kasey Lansdale’s influence was key to the development of Dana Roberts and helped give the series a fresher perspective. I do hope to see more of Dana and Jana, as well as Joe and Kasey as collaborators, in the future though.

For more info about HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story

For more info on THE BIG BOOK OF HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story

For more info about THE BEST OF JOE R. LANSDALE, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by John Picacio

April 19, 2018

SundanceTV’s HAP AND LEONARD is a criminally underrated gem

Alec Checkerfield Uncategorized black girl nerds, chris bumbray, cold in july, collider, den of geek, elizabeth story, hap and leonard, hap and leonard: the two bear mambo, Joe R. Lansdale

Following the recent conclusion of HAP AND LEONARD: THE TWO BEAR MAMBO, SundanceTV has yet to announce a fourth season of the acclaimed series based on Joe R. Lansdale’s popular series. There is much discussion throughout the web.

At DEN OF GEEK:

Considering each season is only six episodes, it’s a wonder that the writers are able to deliver so much story in so little time. The narrative is tight, economical; the dialogue, colorful and truthful.

To say Hap and Leonard is a critical darling is not an understatement (I myself have repeatedly given the series high marks). But the show is absolutely adored by fans, too. A quick search of #HapAndLeonard reveals an active community that includes viewers, actors and producers, all advocating for a series they vehemently believe in.

As of this writing, Hap and Leonard Season 4 has yet to be renewed. With several more of Joe R. Lansdale’s books to adapt, there certainly isn’t a dearth of source material to draw from. And having delivered another strong season with “The Two-Bear Mambo,” Hap and Leonard still has plenty of gas left in the tank. With the season finale, “Monsoon Mambo,” viewers were left wanting more. That’s not a bad thing, of course. But another season of a show filled with so many emotional highs and lows, with so much joy and sorrow, and with so much empathy for the disenfranchised, another season isn’t a bad thing, either.

COLLIDER:

After finishing a devastating and yet strangely timely third season, SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard again finds itself on the renewal bubble — even though its rating are up from Season 2. The show is a Peak TV gem, one that has gotten (perhaps understandably) lost among the noise of shows with bigger budgets on bigger networks. But as I’ve written about many times before, Hap and Leonard deserves more attention. It’s unusual in a number of ways, including its unique 1980s East Texas setting, but mostly in the friendship between its leads. Hap Collins (James Purefoy) is white, a hippie, and a hopeless romantic, while Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams) is a conservative, black, gay Vietnam veteran. They bridge that ideological divide through trust and respect, a lesson that — again — feels timely in a very modern sense.

For those who have been watching the show, you know all of this. You know that the series has always walked a fine line between chaos and deep, emotional authenticity. You know that there aren’t friendships between two middle-aged working class men like this on TV. And forget Roseanne — Hap and Leonard may be TV’s most blue-collar series, one that isn’t afraid to engage with racial politics in a way that never feels ham-fisted. This third season, “Two-Bear Mambo,” has been the most overt so far in that regard, yet it broached the topic of the disappearance of a young black woman — and a Klan-infested town’s reaction to that — with nuance and emotion, especially in the way it gave Florida (Tiffany Mack) a voice with an episode devoted entirely to her truth.

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If Season 4 were to happen, it makes sense to follow the next book in Lansdale’s series (as they have done so far), which puts the focus on Leonard being framed for a crime. But the following book, which incorperates the Dixie Mafia, could also be a heck of a lot of fun. Either way, with only six episodes to work with each season, the show is finely crafted and purely distilled, making every single moment count. It’s not a huge investment for Sundance’s parent company AMC to take on, especially since what this series is doing is important. Not to mention it would also be incredibly sad to leave things as they were to close “Two-Bear Mambo,” with the death of Florida and Hap’s dream of them dancing on the water. It’s as positive of a coda as we could ask for after such an intense and hard story, but it would also be a shame to not explore the further adventures of these two smart, soulful, and chaos-prone friends into a new chapter.

BLACK GIRL NERDS:

The third season of Hap and Leonard: The Two-Bear Mambo ended last week with a finale that erupted the Twitterverse and dominated Instagram. A whole new audience found the show, and others who left after season one CAME BACK. Do you know how monumental that is? Of course you do. So why haven’t you announced a fourth season?

Seriously, why not? The show has had the best season yet. A show couldn’t buy this sort of word-of-mouth.

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It’s already started. Look up #hapandleonard and read the entries. You’ll see. Hap and Leonard have not only started conversations, the show is allowing fans of all ages to converse about some hard topics they never would have before. Look at the tweets. 20-somethings are talking to 50-somethings about social injustice and no one is fighting.

Consider how important this show is in a time when our Commander in Chief is trying to tweet us into WWIII every morning. When Starbucks is getting black professionals arrested for doing the thing one does at Starbucks—meetup and hang. When 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we have real live Grovetowns still dotting the country. Your show’s importance, its newfound audience (and those who found the show again), along with the energy and engagement of the crew with the fans will only roll over into an even more successful run in the fourth season.

So why haven’t you renewed yet?

In other Lansdale media news, Chris Bumbray on JOBLO declares COLD IN JULY as The Best Movie You NEVER Saw.

THE HISTORY: I first saw COLD IN JULY back at Sundance in 2014. I was lucky enough to attend the premiere, and funny enough, I was seated directly in front of the great Don Johnson. And I mean DIRECTLY, in that I could feel his knees against the back of my seat the entire film (the Library theater rows are tight). Just as crazy, Sam Shepard was directly in front of me. HE could probably feel MY knees against HIS seat the whole film. Before the flick started Johnson and Shepard were chatting over me, and none other than Kurt Russell (there supporting his son Wyatt Russell) came over to say hi to them. Then Goldie Hawn came and told Kurt they had to take their seats. I was literally in the crossfires of cool. Trying to not come across as a nerd, I kept my head down and didn’t make my presence known. Truth be told I was shitting bricks. They probably would have been nice enough though, as years later I interviewed Johnson and he was a great guy.

“When you’ve been doing this for as long as I have, you kind of get a sense for directors that have film sense and those that don’t… and sometimes you’re right, and sometimes you’re wrong. [Laughs.] But I was pretty dead on with Jim Mickle. He’s gifted. I usually don’t even watch my movies, but I’ve seen this one a couple of times!” – Don Johnson – AV Club Random Roles Interview

But back to the movie. COLD IN JULY got some pretty great reviews out of Sundance and got picked up by IFC Films, who opened it theatrically to not great box office. I imagine ancillary sales have been brisk though, and it was enough of a hit that Sundance greenlit a series from Mickle, “Hap & Leonard”, that further explores the Joe R. Lansdale universe, and just started its third season. However, the film itself is, in my opinion, totally underappreciated, and deserves to be held up as one of the better genre films of the decade.

WHY IT’S GREAT: I loved COLD IN JULY when I saw it at Sundance, but often it’s very easy to get caught-up in the festival atmosphere and overpraise a film. I watch so many movies for JoBlo (and on my own) that I rarely revisit anything unless I have a compelling reason, and before watching it again this weekend, I hadn’t seen it since the Sundance premiere. Happily, the film holds up extremely well, and I may have actually liked it even more on a second viewing, as by knowing how it plays out I was able to better appreciate Mickle’s style.

What’s cool about the film is that it plays out as a triptych, with each third occupying a different genre. The first third is near horror, as Sam Shepard’s grieving dad stalks Michael C. Hall and his family, while the middle third is a mystery, as they try to piece together who the man Hall killed really was. The final third is the best of all, being an explosive action film, where Hall, Shepard, and Don Johnson, in an iconic performance as Texas P.I Jim Bob Luke, team-up to wreak vengeance on a gang of serial killer/pornographers on the run from the Dixie Mafia.

For more info about COLD IN JULY, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story