The Spoils Before Dying

Tobey Maguire, Jessica Alba, Tim Robbins, Haley Joel Osment, Val Kilmer and Will Ferrell. Just a few names that made their appearance last year in the completely ridiculous 'book adaptation' of Eric Jonrosh's first novel, The Spoils Of Babylon. Book adaptation in quotation marks, because Eric Jonrosh soon turned out to be a made-up character of Will Ferrell and talk of an actually tangible book that you could pull from the dusty shelves of any musty library, was certainly not there at all. In the lee of cannons such as True Detective, The Knick and Marco Polo, this parade of acting big earners in 2014 tinkered with an artistic six-part, which I have watched with increasing amazement and appreciation. The enthusiasm was therefore great when Jonrosh decided to cast his 'book' The Spoils Before Dying in moving images. This time it is Michael Kenneth Williams' characteristic headline that pulls the cart. The man you may know as The Wire's Omar Little or Chalky White in Boardwalk Empire is called Rock Banyon this time. Rock is a 50's jazz pianist accused of the murder of his singing colleague Fresno Foxglove. Rock Banyon. Fresno Foxglove. I realize that for some of you this may sound more like a really bad porn movie with some detective work in it for the form, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Spoils Before Dying is equipped with many conveniences, but naked is not one of them. If you want to spot a tet or a man's butt made of marble every now and then, you better watch Shameless, Girls or True Blood. Anyway… Rock Banyon. Jazz pianist in the 50's. Accused of murder. Rock is apprehended by the strong arm of the law and after being interrogated is given two days to clear his name. If that isn't a cliffhanger then I don't remember either. Broadly speaking, The Spoils Before Dying cooks with the same unusual ingredients that made The Spoils Of Babylon so tasty. Absurd dialogues; a cartload of cameos (short emerging celebrities); Thunderbirds-like scenery; Good actors, who have to do their utmost to beat their lyrics as badly as possible and a shockingly witty Haley Joel Osment, it's all there. There can be chuckles about the way in which the highbrow jazz world is occasionally pitted or about the fact that Jonrosh says he has added a whole new movement to the art with his Post-Post-Modern French Neofakeism, but at the bottom of the line is The Spoils Before Dying. somehow not the worthy successor to The Spoils Of Babylon. In my humble view then. Maybe it's because the story isn't compelling enough or maybe the form that was so new and surprising in The Spoils Of Babylon has lost its true luster again in its successor. Who knows may say. There are only six episodes, so you have everything within two bags of bolognese with dip behind you, and that is fine on a day when IKEA, for example, says they will deliver your new sofa between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Or something.