Author: JaniaJania

Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part One

I loved playing Brody. I’m extremely proud of who we all created together. I think he’s a tragic hero for our time. He himself embodies a cautionary tale, going right back to the beginning, about sending young men to war and the damage it can do. – Damian Lewis

Brody is not a hero. – Damian Lewis

I’m no hero – Nicholas Brody

Someone commented on my Before Dick Winters There Was Nicholas Brody post something to the effect that the two men cannot be cast in the same light, Brody was not a hero, at least not in the same way Winters was. In a frenzy of purging the copious junk mail wordpress seems to attract, I accidentally deleted that comment before responding. Given there are such differing opinions on Brody, the response to the “Hero or No” question deserves a full post (or two). So here it be! Continue reading “Nicholas Brody was No Hero, Part One”

Life with Charlie Crews


I want to be the unwobbling pivot at the center of an ever-revolving universe. I want to be still  – Charlie Crews

Continuing the theme of Damian Lewis playing Americans, we come to Life, a series which lasted for two seasons on network TV.

Like Nicholas Brody, Charlie Crews in Life is unfairly imprisoned and, because he’s a cop, is brutalized while in prison. The series begins just as he’s released and tries to integrate back into a life he hasn’t known for 12 years. He finds that everyone he loved believed he was guilty and is lost to him: his father kept his mother from visiting until she died and his wife got remarried. While in isolation for his own protection in prison, Crews had started to question his own innocence and there are a few moments, as the series progresses, when the audience is led to question his innocence too. Also like Brody, Crews finds peace and escape from the injustices around him in a book. For Brody, it was the Quran, for Crews, it is A Path to Zen.

zen
source: NBC

Continue reading “Life with Charlie Crews”

Why Damian Lewis should play Steve McQueen

News has it there’s a McQueen biopic in the works. And you know what we think, right? One actor comes to mind instantaneously as the best and only one to play Steve McQueen. Here, let’s make it easy with a list:

Top five reasons Damian Lewis MUST be considered to play Steve McQueen

Continue reading “Why Damian Lewis should play Steve McQueen”

Before Nicholas Brody, there was Dick Winters

Damian Lewis’ first role as an American was in the role of Dick Winters in Spielberg/Hanks’ Band of Brothers. (Fun fact: the title Band of Brothers is taken from Shakespeare, from Henry V’s speech to his troops: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother”)

Source: HBO
Source: HBO

Continue reading “Before Nicholas Brody, there was Dick Winters”