OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
About a week ago Jason Hervey, who is a co-founder of Bischoff Hervey Entertainment Television and who also produces The Devils Ride, messaged me on Twitter to politely inquire, “So, how did you like the show,” or something like that. Hervey seems like a decent guy. I imagine he was a kid who had to trade his childhood for a handful of lemons and now he is well on his way to owning Minute Maid.
No. Sorry, Jason. My review was held up. For one thing, nobody at Bischoff Hervey could be bothered to send me a DVD, or what The Industry calls a “screener.” Sometimes, an episode of something will be on a website that requires an access code. Nobody sent me a URL or a code either. And, I didn’t watch the thing when it aired. So I finally got around to watching it on Time Warner Cable’s view on demand last night.
The Punch
I do have to admit that it was almost worth sitting through an hour of this steaming heap of entertainment product just to watch Ralph “Rockem” Randolph get popped in the eye by some member or associate of the Dago charter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
Rockem, the dour fellow in the photo above, got a mouse and a cut that might have been a problem if he was in a prize fight. I suspect he will wear his wound through the next couple of episodes as a red badge of authenticity. I think what Hervey wanted me to tell the world last week was that I recognized five, I think I counted, indicia-less representatives of the Red and White in Dago who got paid behind this particular business venture. Good for those guys! I am all for guys getting paid for standing around a movie set.
Ralph Randolph is a former member of the Angels’ Mesa charter. He obviously left the club in good standing. He probably hooked up his former brothers with this gig. Then after he did that he got punched. No wonder people think we’re all animals.
More About The Punch
The real, live, actual violence was not without precedent. On camera in season one, Laffing Devils wives, a prospect and some of the production crew beat up a photographer named Ashi Fachler. That same season, when the Laffing Devils were still actually a motorcycle club, two members had a well publicized and unfortunate encounter with a member of the Peckerwoods MC. And a month or two after that, several members of a brand name club walked into the Laffing Devils clubhouse during church, helped themselves to some beers and pointedly explained the hierarchy of the food chain to the TV tough guys.
Season Three, Episode One’s punch might very well have been spontaneous and genuine. That’s how it looked and Bischoff Hervey certainly edited the brief exchange melodramatically. Supposedly “the punch” was somehow the result of a one percent diamond on the air cleaner insert on Rockem’s bike. It is plausible.
What is less so is the fact that Ralph and his new “club,” the made for television Sinister Mob Syndicate, are constantly prattling about going to “war” with their arch enemies, the Laffing Devils. Despite all that war talk, like “you guys better be ready to take a bullet for this thing,” neither Rockem nor any of his club brothers put up their hands after “the punch.” So that particular insight into the club life may need a little work. Maybe the Sinister Mobsters should call themselves sisters from now on.
Other than “the punch” episode one was mostly hot air.
No I didn’t watch episode two last night. I traded a couple of semi-lascivious emails with my ex-muse then turned off the television and read a book. Maybe I’ll review episode two next week. How about it Jason? Would you like that?
