Now lets please not have any misunderstandings. Im aware that Im criticizing the performance of a venerable figure who, over the eons and in every conceivable form and category, has compiled an impressive oeuvre. If I have to confess that a lot of His stuff is not to my taste, that I find much of it heavy-handed or impenetrable (when, indeed, it is not distracted and slack), this doesnt mean Ive failed to recognize the enormous contribution Hes made.

Im thinking, of course, of the models some of His stunning manipulations of the more volatile natural elements provided for the Irwin Allen disaster films. And, to be sure, theres His introduction of death itself which, brilliantly counterbalancing His earlier invention of genders and sex, forestalled the unwieldy prospect of twenty-thousand expansion teams in just the American League East (and, say, the 2005 playoffs extending well into the 2020 season). But thats hardly been the limit of this remarkable innovations reach and impact. In its absence, "Scream 2," which everyone agrees was even better than "Scream," would doubtless have languished in perpetual turnaround since filmgoers would have found the emotions of fear and panic depicted in the original much too weird and elusive for a sequel to ever be greenlighted.

Whats more, we can be reasonably certain that the popular denouement of the happy endingthe product of an inevitable backlashwould never have been developed.

So while its often, for me, like feeling obliged to respect whatever that was that Marcel Marceau used to do, even as you knew that one more minute of it and your lungs were going to erupt with blood, Im more than prepared to honor the Old Masters achievements. Its just that Im not what youd call a huge fan. What puts me off most is...well...its His LORDLY attitude. I could forgive Him a lotyes, even those tedious revivals of His wind-and-water specials that take out half a statewere He less disdainful of His audience, less willfully opaque and ambiguous. I know this mysterious ways thing is a cornerstone of His persona and I can understand His reluctance to give it up. But, bordering on the pathological, His aversion to making His meanings known is wearing a little thin, dont you think?

Ill allow that, however disappointing it may be, its ultimately of small consequence when He mounts a shoddy eclipse. But its something else again when, for one especially egregious example, He leaves you to blow out all your circuits trying to figure just where Hannity and Colmes fit into the notion that if youre on the planet its for a reason.

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