Review of Television Series My Name is Earl (2005+)

The Buddha identified karma as volitional activity. That is, each volition in the mind is like a seed with tremendous potential. In the same way that the smallest acorn contains the potential of a great oak tree, so too each of our willed actions contains the seed of karmic results. The particular result depends on the qualities of mind associated with each volition. Greed, hatred, and delusion are unwholesome qualities that produce fruits of suffering; generosity, love, and wisdom are wholesome factors that bear fruits of happiness.

The Buddha called the understanding of this law of karma, the law of action and result, the “light of the world,” because it illuminates how life unfolds and why things are the way they are. The wisdom of this understanding allows us the freedom to make wise choices in our life.
- Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation

Earl believes in a simplistic concept karma - “If you do bad things, bad things happen to you. If you do good things, good things happen to you.” While this is a simplistic understanding it does motivate Earl to change his life. He creates a list of all the bad things he has done in his life and sets out to make amends . In addition to experiencing better luck, Earl discovers the joy of making people’s lives better.

Although some of Earl’s previous actions were criminal, the series shows that even smaller actions have long term consequences. Earl develops awareness of cause and effect. The series is laugh out loud funny but also poignant and thought-provoking.

Review of The Vampire Diaries Television Series 2009

And what, monks, is Right Action? Refraining from taking life, refraining from taking what is not given, refraining from sexual misconduct. This is called Right Action.
- The Buddha

This review is based on the first three shows of the season.

Although it is difficult to come up with new angles on vampire mythology, this series doesn’t even try. It is unfair to compare it to the groundbreaking movies like Blade, Interview with a Vampire, and so on, it is fair to compare it to other vampire television series such as Forever Knight (1989-1996), Buffy (1997-2003), and Angel (1999-2004). In doing so, The Vampire Diaries comes up short on intelligent writing, depth of character, innovation, wit, complexity of plot, and surprise but heavy on clichés, overt sexual flirtation, and jump-out-at-you moments. Diaries is a third-rate horror/melodrama.

My biggest objection to this series is that it takes place in a high school when it should at least be a college. Casual rampant sex, pervasive alcohol consumption, violence, and drug abuse are constantly in the forefront. There is very little ethical behaviour and most of that is trite and formulaic. This is not the kind of show I would want my teenager to watch steadily. Studies have shown that girls who watch television shows regularly with sexually active young people have twice the rate of teenage pregnancy.

In the first three episodes, I saw no redeeming value in this series. It seems an unimaginative attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Twilight Series.

Review of the Television Series Flashpoint (2008+)

Review of the Television Series Flashpoint on CTV

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.
The Buddha
Flashpoint is a slick and hard-hitting Canadian television series filmed in Toronto. The Strategic Response Unit, a highly trained SWAT team, handle hostage situations. Greg Parker, the leader, tries to empathize with the criminal and convince him or her to surrender peacefully. His job is to defuse the situation or give the command for the snipers to shoot the aggressor.

Quite often Greg, his team, and the audience connect and identify with the aggressor. At times, the hostage seems to be more of a villain than the person with the gun. Each episode begins at the peak of confrontation, and then rewinds to explain the series of events that have led up to this moment of ultimate threat. Cause and effect are clearly explained.

This heartrending show demonstrates how people can be caught up in causes and conditions that lead them to places and actions they never expected or desired. We indentify and feel compassion for the hostage, the hostage taker, the SRU team, and the people who love each of them.

There are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.

When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.

Thich Nhat Hanh