TV Review: The Henry Rollins Show

Okay. Maybe it’s because my cable company doesn’t carry the Independent Film Channel (IFC) or maybe it’s because I’m simply out of touch with the universe as I’m too busy swimming in my own imagination, but how the hell did reality zip by me fast enough for me to be able to talk to you about the second season of The Henry Rollins Show?

I didn’t even know there had been a first season — and I consider myself a Henry Rollins fan! Crap. I wonder if this means that Henry will make a pit stop on one of his numerous trips across the country (or world, really) and head to Arkansas in order to smack the real world back into me? Probably.

Luckily, when the opportunity arose for someone to have a chance to write about the aforementioned second season, it didn’t matter that I currently don’t have the ability to watch the show on IFC. Nope. Instead, I was sent a sampler DVD containing the first three episodes in their entirety.

Have I ever mentioned how much I adore being a part of Blogcritics? Well, I do.

Whether talking about Rollins as an author, poet, spoken-word performer, front man for Black Flag or any of the various incarnations of the Rollins Band, or simply as a human being, the first word that comes to mind is “intensity.” That, above all else, is really what drew me into wanting to get a look at what The Henry Rollins Show was all about.

The Henry Rollins Show may be the most unexpected thing ever to have graced my television screen — a talk show hosted by Henry Rollins. Whoa.

After watching the sampler DVD — repeatedly — I feel comfortable telling you that this is the most unusual talk show that I’ve ever watched. I mean that in the best possible way, though. Instead of the usual inane pabulum and self-promotional bullsh*t that is the usual fare for such shows, Rollins offers up something that is at once genuine, engaging, stark, personal, and (of course) very intense.

On the season opener, for instance, you get the visual oddity of seeing Henry Rollins sitting and having a conversation with Marilyn Manson that not only leaves you feeling like you’ve gotten to see a bit more of Manson that he usually likes to reveal in an interview. Of course, I’m not saying that he was openly weeping and having a Kleenex moment with Rollins, but he does seem intrigued by the fact that Rollins isn’t just babbling away at him with the usual list of questions he’s probably been asked over and over since he first broke onto the scene with Antichrist Superstar.

Article Author: Michael Jones

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