6 — Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Arts
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By Lee Taylor
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
04/16/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

04/16/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2019

ACROSS
1 “The Big Bang 
Theory” network
4 Uncertain
8 Peek at someone 
else’s test 
answers, say
13 River to the 
Caspian
15 Where to find a 
hero
16 Rental document
17 Opera songs for 
one
18 Part of
19 Ready for action
20 Farewell 
performance
22 Award-winning 
sci-fi author __ 
Ellison
23 Chess match 
finale
24 Summer camp 
craft
25 Neuter
26 Squinter’s 
wrinkles
30 Done with 
employment: 
Abbr.
32 Cathedral recess
33 Go off course
34 Lively Irish 
dances
37 “Steppenwolf” 
writer Hermann
39 Lyre-playing 
emperor
40 “Much __ About 
Nothing”
41 Broadway partner 
of Rodgers
42 Reuben bread
44 Hidden danger
47 Honey-colored
51 Big rigs
52 Track’s inside 
track
54 Songs of praise
56 Easy-peasy task
57 Sports stadium
58 Jellystone Park 
bear
59 Actor Miller of 
“Justice League”
60 Watchful period
61 Keen
62 Sets eyes on
63 Lawn-trimming 
targets

64 Ballpoints
65 Banned 
insecticide

DOWN
1 Used “colorful” 
language
2 “Doctor My 
Eyes” singer 
Jackson __
3 Light lunches
4 Strong suit or 
weak sauce
5 African desert fox
6 Criticize harshly
7 Yang 
complement
8 Purify
9 Find out about
10 Keen-sighted 
sort
11 Between ports
12 Seagull kin
14 Won’t go away, 
as an odor
21 __-Coburg: 
former Bavarian 
duchy
22 Mooring rope
24 Foes of robbers
27 Many a reggae 
artist
28 Corn serving

29 Romantic dinner 
complement
31 “To clarify ... ”
34 Quick punch
35 Swearing-in 
words
36 Big fat zero
38 Drops the ball
39 Formidable 
opponents
41 Church books 
with many notes
43 Sudden pull

45 Small skullcap
46 Connect to an 
outlet
48 Drank to excess
49 Hardened (to)
50 Dinner, say
53 Corrosive 
compounds
54 Cover with asphalt
55 Like the Mojave
56 Jackknifed into 
the pool, say
58 Chatter

FOR RENT

Adapted from the memoir 
“I’m Special: And Other Lies 
We Tell Ourselves” by Ryan 
O’Connell, “Special” tells his 
semi-autobiographical tale of 
life as a gay man with cerebral 
palsy who is learning how to 
live on his own. “Special,” 
produced 
by 
Jim 
Parsons 
(“The 
Big 
Bang 
Theory”), 
distinguishes 
itself 
from 
other shows about disabled 
people right off the bat, 
avoiding common tropes of 
self-pity and the erasure of 
romantic plotlines. It also 
is one of the few shows 
featuring a disabled actor 
actually playing a disabled 
character.
Like all new TV shows, 
it takes a few episodes for the 
show to find its stride. The 
dialogue 
is 
initially 
heavy 
with unintentional awkward 
silence in conversations and a 
forced effort to be funny, but 
gradually, the dialogue begins 
to sound more realistic and 
confident in its delivery. It’s 
easy to binge, but it’s a shame 
that the show ends right when 
it begins to self-actualize.
There are several memorable 
scenes 
that 
don’t 
resemble 
anything that’s ever been seen 
on television. One of the most 
daring scenes is when Olivia 

(Marla Mindelle, “Kevin Hart’s 
Guide 
to 
Black 
History”), 
Ryan’s boss, sets him up with 
her cousin after hearing that 
he was looking for a boyfriend. 
Ryan agrees but is surprised 
when he realizes that his 
date is deaf. He says he can 
“do better than a deaf guy,” 
and Olivia immediately calls 
him out for his internalized 
ableism — the idea that societal 
prejudices against the disabled 
cause disabled people to loathe 

themselves and others who fall 
under the same category. On 
TV, the most common narrative 
arc for disabled people is their 
constant internal conflict and 
attempt to fit into society. 
While Ryan experiences this 
as well, the show delves deeper 
into the complexities of how 
being disabled doesn’t give 
you a free pass to treat other 
humans as lesser.
It 
also 
tackles 
disability 
from a mother’s perspective. In 
media about disability, mothers 
are often portrayed as strong, 
impenetrable forces that live 

solely to support their kids. 
Although some moms embody 
this 
personality, 
“Special” 
recognizes the struggles many 
parents face with empty nest 
syndrome. Ryan’s mom, Karen 
(Jessica 
Hecht, 
“Quantico”), 
dutifully represents a mother 
who has spent her whole life 
acting as an on-call nurse 
for both her son and her own 
mother, who has dementia. 
When Ryan leaves the house, 
she wrestles with trying to 
start up her own life again 
whilst constantly worrying 
about her son’s well-being. 
Parents will be able to 
resonate with her narrative, 
which the show thankfully 
never neglects throughout 
the season.
Despite the show’s rough 
start, “Special” flourishes 
nicely into a unique and 
rarely-seen representation of 
the disabled and how their 
struggles aren’t so different 
from able-bodied people. As 
aforementioned, 
“Special” 
ended right at what seemed like 
the climax of the show, giving 
Netflix even more incentive 
for renewal if the impressively 
fresh 
plot 
wasn’t 
enough. 
Seeing as true stories like these 
hardly 
ever 
gain 
attention 
on 
mainstream 
television, 
there are so many layers and 
dimensions of disability the 
show can bring to the surface 
on a platform like Netflix.

Netflix’s ‘Special’ breaks 
notions of disability, sex

SOPHIA YOON
Daily Arts Writer

TV REVIEW

NETFLIX

Special

Netflix

Season 1

Now streaming

I tried to like this movie. I 
really, really did. I told myself 
that 
to 
expect 
perfection 
from a romantic comedy is 
absolutely 
unrealistic. 
And 
even though I’ve been less than 
impressed with Netflix’s past 
ventures into the genre, “To 
All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” 
included, at least they had a 
point, something they wanted 
to say. Unfortunately, “The 
Perfect Date” has anything but 
a point. Underdeveloped and 
uninspired in every possible 
sense, “The Perfect Date” has 
nothing to say. Because of this, 
it is truly, truly terrible and 
completely devoid of anything 
resembling life.
The 
movie 
follows 
our 
protagonist Brooks Rattigan 
(you read that right, Brooks 
Rattigan), 
played 
by 
Noah 
Centineo (“To All the Boys I’ve 
Loved Before”). Brooks wants 
two things in life — one, to 
attend Yale, and two, to change 
the world. By some logic I still 
don’t fully understand, Brooks 
decides that developing an 
app with his best friend that 
connects him to local high 
school girls who are interested 
in renting his dating services 
for money — which, by the way, 
could only come across as some 
kind of male power fantasy — is 
his ticket into Yale.
His first client and eventual 
love interest is Celia, played 
by Laura Marano (“Austin and 
Ally”), who I must say is one of 
the more deplorable romantic 
comedy 
leads 
in 
recent 

memory. Celia prides herself on 
being “not like the other girls.” 
She even says at one point, 
“Just because I’m a little weird 
doesn’t make me less human. In 
fact, it makes me more human.” 
Somehow, the movie thinks 
that Celia’s “quirks,” such as 
being an awkward dancer and 
disliking high heels, equate to 
her having a personality. Not 
surprisingly, they don’t. Celia 
is boring, dull and empty of 
any substance, just like Brooks, 
precisely because she is made 
into a stereotype rather than 
an interesting, fully-formed 
human being.

As you may have guessed 
at this point, “The Perfect 
Date” 
is 
awful 
primarily 
because of its writing. Not 
only is the script desperately 
dependent on tired stereotypes 
and 
cliches, 
including 
the 
conveniently 
helpful 
gay 
best friend and the arbitrary 
makeover scene that once again 
reduces the character’s worth 
to their outward appearance, it 
chooses to incorporate several 
unnecessary plot points that 
are 
never 
elaborated 
upon 
fully. For instance, Brooks’s 

mother left his family when he 
was young to start another one 
with someone else. While this 
has the potential to be truly 
intriguing and to give insight 
into why Brooks is the way he 
is, it hardly seems to affect him 
at all. In fact, it’s mentioned 
once or twice and then never 
discussed again. While I could 
suggest that the filmmakers 
extend the movie’s somewhat 
short runtime of just under an 
hour and half to better develop 
Brooks’s backstory, I have to 
admit that I’m glad the movie 
ended sooner rather than later 
for my own sanity. Neither lead 
delivers a particularly stellar 
performance, but it’s hard to 
blame them considering the 
dialogue 
they 
were 
given, 
much of which is outright 
hysterical: “I’m a gay teenage 
pimp wearing a secondhand 
hoodie … my life as I envisioned 
it.”
All in all, “The Perfect 
Date” is a charmless, instantly 
forgettable addition to the 
romantic 
comedy 
canon. 
Watching the movie, I couldn’t 
help but think back to another, 
far superior Netflix movie 
starring Noah Centineo — “To 
All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” 
While that movie isn’t perfect, 
it has substance. It has a soul. 
On the contrary, “The Perfect 
Date” is lifeless, with a script so 
bad it’s almost condescending. 
We know Netflix can do better; 
“To All the Boys” proves that. 
We must show Netflix that 
we deserve better. To do this, 
I highly recommend you skip 
“The Perfect Date,” both for 
your own sake and for the 
future of the romantic comedy.

‘The Perfect Date’ is a 
dull, distressing rom-com

ELISE GODFRYD
Daily Arts Writer

FILM REVIEW

NETFLIX

Perfect 
Date

Netflix

Ace Entertainment, 
Awesomeness Films

Vinitaly, Verona: The largest 
wine exhibition in the world, a 
vino lover’s heaven, a logistical 
nightmare, an Italian cultural 
celebration that is so grandiose 
it is nearly impossible carry out. 
Vinitaly is a festival spanning 
four days filled with wine, 
food, art and music in support 
of the Italian wine community. 
The fiasco is set in one of Italy’s 
hidden gems, the city of lovers 
and Juliet’s crumbling ancient 
home base: Verona, Italy. This 
is perhaps less of a festival 
and more of a production. The 
curtain goes up on day one, 
bright and early as wine lovers 
pour 
into 
the 
fairgrounds, 
longing to make connections 
over young, punchy whites and 
deep, thoughtful reds. For the 
next 96 hours, the curtain does 
not close. It is probably the only 
event in the world that brings 
together such a high volume 
of 
wine 
makers, 
vineyard 
owners, 
wine 
buyers 
and 
importers, restaurateurs and 
wine lovers in an amalgamation 
of wine tasting, negotiations 
and innovation surrounding 
viniculture and the Italian 
wine industry.
This is a place I could 
disappear into.
I 
had 
the 
pleasure 
of 
accompanying my father, a 

restauranteur, 
to 
the 
54th 
Vinitaly festival this past week. 
Verona, a place I had not been 
since I was eight years old, has 
aged hardly a day — her walls 
and roads still boast strong 
cobblestone and aged brick, 
romantic as ever. Her nightlife 
is hot, energetic, fashionable 
and lively — pulsing brightly 
into the early hours of the 
morning. I remembered two 
things of Verona from my 
previous visit: The pigeons 
and the people — both large in 
number, the latter bashful and 
subdued in the face of such 
an outpour of attention from 
tourists.
The first morning begins 
with an uncertain, intangible 
energy. The hotel we’re staying 
in is filled with other festival 
goers, and the whole city is 
teeming — the air, bright and 
crisp in the early days of Spring, 
is awaiting something too. On 
a taxi ride to the fairgrounds 
from the hotel, we are told in 
half-Italian, half-English that 
we have to share the taxi we’ve 
ordered with another party, as 
the taxis are in high demand —
everyone in Verona today has 
a common destination. In the 
cab, we have our first strangely 
ironic, authentic connection 
of the day when we realize, 
through no common language, 
that we know our fellow cab 
members through their famous 

Italian vineyard. As we pull up 
to the fairgrounds, we swap 
business cards and promise to 
come visit their booth at the 
fair — a promise, I learned, that 
is not easily kept once swept 
up in the camaraderie and 
commotion of the event. 
Entering the fair is like trying 
to fit a beast into a dog’s cage. 
Thousands of people, elbows 
extended, surging toward three 
doors which open into a huge 
clearing that is home to the ten 
warehouses. Along with the 
warehouses is a display made 
of cork and flowers which 
reads, “Vinitaly 54.” Welcome, 
wine lovers — Verona has been 
waiting. It’s 9 a.m. and the scene 
inside the fair is utter chaos. 
In Italian, lovers and friends 
quarrel over which province 
to visit first. Important men 
in expensive suits carrying 
leather 
briefcases 
beeline 
toward their first meetings of 
the day. Everyone is smoking 
cigarettes, everyone is dressed 
their best, almost everyone is 
prepared to pace themselves 
through a dreamy cycle of wine 
tastings. Navigating by foldable 
map and iPhone app, we begin 
our journey through the world 
of Italian wine, one wine glass 
at a time.

Vinitaly, Verona

DAILY FOOD COLUMN

ELI RALLO
Daily Food Columnist

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

