It may seem like a stretch, and it probably is, to find a common thread between FOX’s new comedy/drama series “Rake” and the Starz cable channel’s pirate adventure “Black Sails.”

Of course, the legal profession, when it is being subverted or even twisted into something illogical, just might not be too far indistinguishable from the amoral compass that guides the lawbreakers on the high seas.

What might really bind “Rake,” the story of a criminal defense lawyer with dubious judgment, and “Black Sails,” centered on a feared pirate captain of his day, is simply interesting character-driven entertainment.

Then again, the mutual bond of these two new series is rooted in the launching of fresh, original television programming after the holidays when the entertainment alternative of excellent new movies is almost as rare as a snow day in Hollywood.

“Rake” may not be as original as it appears, owing to the fact that it is an American adaptation of an Australian television series of the same name, both of which are created by Peter Duncan.

I am no more familiar with Australian television than the next guy, and so to me, “Rake” is wholly original, even if in some quarters the show invites comparisons to “House,” though the oddly loveable star Greg Kinnear won’t be mistaken anytime soon for the cranky Hugh Laurie.

Greg Kinnear has just the right amount of wacky charisma to play defense lawyer Keegan Deane, a person deemed “unreliable” by his ex-wife Maddy (Miranda Otto) and an “outrage to the legal system” by most judges and prosecutors.

Keegan is also deemed “unreliable” by tough guy creditor Roy (Omar J. Dorsey), to whom Keegan owes an incredible sum due to gambling debts incurred by a series of really bad decisions.

Life for the defense attorney is complicated. His ex-wife is a therapist who still provides him free counseling sessions. But his girlfriend (Bojana Novakovic), a prostitute, doesn’t give him a free pass.

Divorced and homeless, Keegan crashes on the couch of his best friend, Ben Leon (John Ortiz), a fellow lawyer, whose wife Scarlet (Necar Zadegan) is an Assistant District Attorney and frequent courtroom adversary for Keegan.

Oh, and there’s even more. His underpaid assistant Leanne (Tara Summers) may be deported for overstaying her visa. Another predicament looms with the government breathing down his neck, as David Harbour’s IRS tax attorney David Potter pokes into his business affairs.

It’s not uncommon for TV series to focus on the antihero type, but in the case of “Rake” the character played by Greg Kinnear is unorthodox in a more pleasing fashion, and it’s almost a guilty pleasure to see how he may escape his recurring tight spots.

The pirate adventure “Black Sails” also focuses on debatable characters, ones from a bygone era when fierce and violent criminals roamed the high seas in search of bounty to plunder.

Like “Rake,” there is character-driven development in the tale of Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), the most brilliant and feared pirate captain of his day, and the fast-talking young addition to his crew who goes by the name of John Silver (Luke Arnold).

The interesting thing to keep in mind about “Black Sails” is the piracy takes place twenty years prior to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic “Treasure Island.” As a result, there is insight into the formative years of the pirate to become Long John Silver.

For the most part, one would objectively have to say that “Black Sails” is what one would expect from a Michael Bay production, the producer and director famous for splashy action pictures like “Pearl Harbor” and the “Transformers” franchise.

The opening scene of the first episode involves an epic battle at sea when Captain Flint’s band of marauders takes control of another ship in a pitched battle. The visual appeal of ensuing pirate violence is rooted in realism and excellent production values.

The pirate bands face ongoing threats, seeking refuge in the scenic New Providence Island, the most notorious criminal haven of its day – a debauched paradise teeming with pirates, prostitutes, thieves and fortune seekers.

To be sure, there are plenty of fights of all kinds, with fists flying, swords flailing and guns firing. On the other hand, “Black Sails” requires a degree of patience to discover the motivations of the central characters. This is not a series given to quick and easy resolutions.

Nevertheless, fitting for a cable series that dwells on sex and violence, similar in certain ways to “Spartacus” or “Game of Thrones,” nudity and sex scenes are not in short supply.

Speaking of sex and nudity, one criminal is informed that he will be meeting with a famous pirate, and what happens next gives new meaning to the name of Blackbeard. Viewers expecting titillation may find “Black Sails” on par with other period pieces in the same vein.

As expected in most pirate adventures, the female characters here are not just wenches and prostitutes. For one, Hannah New brings tough-minded skills to the role of savvy businesswoman Eleanor Guthrie, who underwrites many pirate excursions.

“Black Sails,” with an initial run of eight episodes, is worth a look while shows of a similar genre in the action department remain on hiatus or waiting in the wings.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

So much of what we learn about life comes from exchanging stories, and this poem by a Californian, Peter Everwine, portrays that kind of teaching. I love the moment where he says he doesn’t know if the story is true but it ought to be.

A Story Can Change Your Life

On the morning she became a young widow,
my grandmother, startled by a sudden shadow,
looked up from her work to see a hawk turn
her prized rooster into a cloud of feathers.
That same moment, halfway around the world
in a Minnesota mine, her husband died,
buried under a ton of rockfall.
She told me this story sixty years ago.
I don’t know if it’s true but it ought to be.
She was a hard old woman, and though she knelt
on Sundays when the acolyte’s silver bell
announced the moment of Christ’s miracle,
it was the darker mysteries she lived by:
shiver-cry of an owl, black dog by the roadside,
a tapping at the door and nobody there.
The moral of the story was plain enough:
miracles become a burden and require a priest
to explain them. With signs, you only need
to keep your wits about you and place your trust
in a shadow world that lets you know hard luck
and grief are coming your way. And for that
—so the story goes—any day will do.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Peter Everwine, whose most recent book of poems is Listening Long and Late, University of Pittsburg Press, 2013. Poem reprinted from Ploughshares, Winter 2012-13, Vol. 38, No. 4, by permission of Peter Everwine and the publisher. Introduction copyright 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County’s own original variety show, “Lake County Live!,” will present its next show on Sunday, Jan. 26.

Featured musician will be pianist and singer Andy Rossoff of Lakeport.

The shows are held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

Ticket cost is $5 per person.

The audience is asked to be seated by 5:45 p.m.; they’re also invited to stay after the show for additional performances by the featured musicians.

Show creator and host Doug Rhoades hosts a lineup of local musicians as well as original sketches and comedy including the “Ladies of the Lake.”

Lake County Live! airs live on Lake County Community Radio KPFZ at 88.1 FM and is also streamed live on the Internet via www.kpfz.org .

The Soper-Reese Community Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Live Oak Grill will host a fundraiser for KPFZ 88.1 FM community radio on Friday, Feb. 7.

The event will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. in the newly transformed banquet room of the restaurant, located at 5576 Live Oak Drive.

The Jim Leonardis Quartet will perform Jazz for dancing. The band features Jim Leonardis on tenor sax and clarinet, keyboardist Paul Kemp, bassist David Ferrario, and drummer Lynn Clark. A Spanish tapas seven course dinner will be served.

Call 707-245-7532 or 707-994-4373 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to reserve tickets.

Only 50 tickets are available at $20 for KPFZ members, $25 for non-members. Membership forms will be available at the door.

Another jazz club event is in the works for March.

Contact Suzanne at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-994-4373 if you are interested in performing.

JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (Rated PG-13)

The late Tom Clancy’s prolific novels about the ambitious CIA analyst Jack Ryan, who rises through the ranks in the intelligence community, has created a continuous thread of movies where the actors are as interchangeable as the ones in the James Bond series.

Arguably, Jack Ryan has much in common with the famous fictional British secret agent. Men with bright minds to match their physical prowess, they go about the serious business of saving the world from tyranny in its many forms.

For Jack Ryan, the enemy typically involved the Cold War-era Soviet Union and the fight was against the “evil empire.”

Just when you thought the geopolitical battles didn’t involve Russia any longer, along comes Vladimir Putin as the strongman of the East.

What with the recent debacles involving Edward Snowden and the vacillation over the Syrian civil war, Putin has stepped into the breach on the world stage, and certainly not for the better.

Now arriving in theaters is the updated version of Clancy’s hero, for “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” taps into the modern zeitgeist as it relates to the increasing tensions of late between Russia and the United States.

The modern Jack Ryan (played by Chris Pine) taps into the post-9/11 sensibilities in a big way. We first see Jack as a graduate student at the London School of Economics on the day of the terrorist attack on American soil.

Committed to serving his country, Jack joins the Marines and becomes a hero during a mission in Afghanistan, where he is injured saving the lives of two of his fellow soldiers following a rocket attack on their helicopter.

Following a long recovery stint at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he meets his future wife Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), Jack is recruited by the mysterious Commander Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) to join the CIA as an analyst.

The CIA agent’s first job is undercover work at a major Wall Street financial firm, where his assignment is to track monetary transactions that could be linked to terrorist groups and foreign enemies.

Years of toiling in financial intelligence yield promising results when Jack figures that Russian oligarch Viktor Cheverin (Kenneth Branagh) is engineering a geopolitical plot to destroy the American economy with a currency dump combined with a terrorist attack.

The spy business becomes operational for Jack when he is sent to Moscow to poke around in Cheverin’s financial empire. A rude encounter in his hotel room throws Jack into full action-hero mode, requiring his old Marine training to kick in with a vengeance.

Almost immediately Jack finds himself in the thick of Russian villainy, with bad guys that make the old KGB agents look like schoolboys at a dance party. For his part, the complicated Cheverin is a drug-addicted psychopath with a burning hatred for the West.

Things get even more interesting when Jack’s fiancée Cathy shows up in Moscow, harboring suspicions that his erratic behavior may have something to do with covering up infidelity. She is relieved to find out that his secret is that of being an American agent.

The plot requires a breach of Cheverin’s palatial headquarters so that Jack may retrieve the computer files that would be essential to thwarting the plot to undermine America’s financial stability.

One of the best scenes in the movie is the uneasy dinner meeting with Cheverin at the fancy restaurant across the street from his office. It’s a battle of wits where the stakes are high.

Unlikely as it may seem, Cathy becomes game for teasing deception to keep Cheverin preoccupied with her brainy conversation about Russian poets while flirting so boldly with her Russian host as to keep his mind off Jack’s convenient absence to walk off a love spat.

Apparently, the ruthless Russian financier is no match for the seductive wiles of an American temptress. But then, Cheverin has a weakness for heroin, fine dining and attractive females.

The tension continues when the action shifts to the United States, where a terrorist cell activated by Cheverin is going about the nasty business of setting in motion a bombing plot set to target Wall Street.

Luckily for Western Civilization, Jack Ryan knows how to take down the plot, and at one point, he’s chasing the bad guys on a motorcycle with the panache of Jason Bourne.

To be sure, Jack Ryan shares the action traits of well-known secret agents, but Chris Pine is bringing a modern sensibility to a pensive hero who combines brains with the brawn.

“Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit” has plenty of entertaining diversions to show promise for a contemporary reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise. Chris Pine registers the right amount of charisma for the role. With any luck, we’ll see him again soon, maybe taking on the Red Chinese.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Old Time Fiddlers Association continues its monthly first Sunday’s Fiddlers Jam sessions hosted by the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum on Sunday, Feb. 2.

Fiddlers will meet in the Ely barn to perform their wonderful Americana music.

The fun begins at the museum at 11 a.m. with the fiddlers playing from noon through 2 p.m. Note the change in time for the Fiddlers.

Donations will be happily accepted to benefit the Ely Stage Stop and The Old Time Fiddlers Association. Winter rains will cancel the event.

This is a free, family friendly event for all to enjoy, young and old alike.  Enjoy the music with hot beverages and tasty treats.  Bring your own wine and sip it in Ely Stage Stop wine glasses that are always available for purchase. Clap your hands, tap your toes or get up and dance!

The stage stop, operated by the Lake County Historical Society, is located at 9921 Soda Bay Road (Highway 281) in Kelseyville.

Current hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Visit www.elystagestop.com or www.lakecountyhistory.org , check out the stage stop on Facebook at www.facebook.com/elystagestop or call the museum at 707-533-9990.