As in, the middle of the week, and the surprisingly solid two hour comedy block ABC's instilled into Wednesday nights.
Before I get to that though, I realize I neglected to cover Tuesday's Glee. So here's the gist of it: It was probably the strongest episode this season so far, shifting focus to characters that always seem to hang on the Glee-verse's periphery and giving them more narrative exposition. In laymen's terms, Mercedes was fierce, and thank goodness she stood up and pointed out the Rachel Berry favoritism, Mike Chang was awesome and made West Side Story's dancing gangsters cool. Didn't really care for the assumption that Asian parents are only grades driven and don't encourage extracurriculars or other career ventures. And Glee needs to step away from Coldplay's catalog and never cover a song of theirs again. "Fix You" was rendered as schmaltzy and melodramatic.
Luther's back, and just as morally ambiguous as ever. There are aspects of the show that drive me batty, namely the glacial pace at which the title character and his band of skeptical detectives try to solve the case. Things I've learned about Luther:
- sucks if you work under him and some psychopathic homocidal maniac decides you're bargaining leverage (you're on your own)
- he really is a big softie, and the girl he rescued has a horrible mother
- the guy that played Stan Shunpike in the HP movies did an unnervingly good job as Cameron
And now, to the comedy block....
Can I just say that I LOVE The Middle? Sure, Modern Family gets all the glory and attention, but the Hecks and their middle class house replete with messy kitchen and aged furniture warms the cold, dark recesses of my heart. Frankie flips out after eating chips from a bag that Axl's deposited his toenail clippings in (GROSS) and flips out after a series of surmounting annoyances. The kids spend the entire episode coming to terms with the fact that they need to alter their behavior lest they drive their mother crazy, and finally put the idea into action when they find out a half hour before her return that she's coming home. I love that their solution is to dump everything in the backyard.
Suburgatory is snarky, good fun. It's weird to see SNL alums as the overly perky neighbors to a former L&O detective, but the gossipy male neighbors and the triumphant hibachi BBQ save were ridiculously funny.
Modern Family is at its best, I think, when it focuses on Jay and Manny and Cameron and Mitchell. Claire comes off as a tad too shrilly sometimes, which always makes me want to change the channel. Cam and Mitchell spend the day passive aggresively handing the kitchen cleaning duties off to one another (actually Cameron acts as though he wants to do it himself) while Jay tries to help Manny sell wrapping paper
t
Happy Endings was one of those, "I guess since I'm sitting here I might as well watch teh hours." kinds of shows. I can't hate since it had dumb teens buying baby jumpers as a fad, a LOTR joke, and a guy working a food truck.
Revenge never manages to get a full sit down watch, and that's a shame because the underlying story is great, but I can't deal with all if half the time it jumps to randy teens trying to get it on.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Weekend Roundup
So, Monday's are technically the start of the new week. Oh well.
Doctor Who finished off the reboot's sixth season with a decent finale. It wrapped up the River Song arc, which was losing its luster by this point. Moffat & co at least managed to keep the story coherent. I hope the Christmas special is an improvement on the better part of this season.
Boardwalk Empire was fantastic! Poor Nucky's starting to realize that everyone he relied heavily on is turning against him, and attempting to forge their own path in the process. I love seeing the self-reliant side of Margaret Schroeder; who sharply puts an Irish politico in his place after he mistakes her for being meek, and in the best scene ever, uses her maid's clothing and plays the widow card to sneak into Nucky's office and steal his cash and ledger from right under the officials' noses. I can't wait to see what the writers do with her character.
One of the things BE does really well is reflect the differences characters experience in similar situations. Nucky failed to secure the support of those he relies on and spent the episode grasping for what power he has left, while his counterpart, Chalky White, silently exerted it in one of the best scenes the show has produced. Chalky spent the entire episode in jail and most of it being harassed by a smartass who didn't know a thing about the Black community in Atlantic City. The man gets a beatdown from the four or five men occupying the cell after insulting Chalky's wife, literacy skills, garb, and shooting his mouth off incessently. In an impressive and frightening display of quiet menace, Chalky inquires after each of the five men's families, reflecting the power he has over his community and without lifting a finger, condemns his harasser to serious lesson.
Of the two offerings Whitney Cummings' has this fall, I think 2 Broke Girls is the better project. It's certainly not without its faults, and the fact that it's a CBS comedy makes me question the level of taste even if it has some appeal. My problem with the show is that while it has its genuine moments (which a better part of their comedic line up seem to have: HIMYM, TBBT), it either tries too hard with regards to jokes: beating jokes down like a dead horse, or completely offensive:rape jokes, stereotypical Asian presentations.
I want to like 2 Broke Girls, I really do. I love that the focus isn't on them trying to find partners (HIMYM, I love you, but 7 seasons in and I need a break from Ted's single whinging), but I spend half the show cringing. The attempts at progressive jokes are tried, and for a show that's supposed to be set in a racially, culturally diverse and vibrant city (NYC), it seems lacking.
Doctor Who finished off the reboot's sixth season with a decent finale. It wrapped up the River Song arc, which was losing its luster by this point. Moffat & co at least managed to keep the story coherent. I hope the Christmas special is an improvement on the better part of this season.
Boardwalk Empire was fantastic! Poor Nucky's starting to realize that everyone he relied heavily on is turning against him, and attempting to forge their own path in the process. I love seeing the self-reliant side of Margaret Schroeder; who sharply puts an Irish politico in his place after he mistakes her for being meek, and in the best scene ever, uses her maid's clothing and plays the widow card to sneak into Nucky's office and steal his cash and ledger from right under the officials' noses. I can't wait to see what the writers do with her character.
One of the things BE does really well is reflect the differences characters experience in similar situations. Nucky failed to secure the support of those he relies on and spent the episode grasping for what power he has left, while his counterpart, Chalky White, silently exerted it in one of the best scenes the show has produced. Chalky spent the entire episode in jail and most of it being harassed by a smartass who didn't know a thing about the Black community in Atlantic City. The man gets a beatdown from the four or five men occupying the cell after insulting Chalky's wife, literacy skills, garb, and shooting his mouth off incessently. In an impressive and frightening display of quiet menace, Chalky inquires after each of the five men's families, reflecting the power he has over his community and without lifting a finger, condemns his harasser to serious lesson.
Of the two offerings Whitney Cummings' has this fall, I think 2 Broke Girls is the better project. It's certainly not without its faults, and the fact that it's a CBS comedy makes me question the level of taste even if it has some appeal. My problem with the show is that while it has its genuine moments (which a better part of their comedic line up seem to have: HIMYM, TBBT), it either tries too hard with regards to jokes: beating jokes down like a dead horse, or completely offensive:rape jokes, stereotypical Asian presentations.
I want to like 2 Broke Girls, I really do. I love that the focus isn't on them trying to find partners (HIMYM, I love you, but 7 seasons in and I need a break from Ted's single whinging), but I spend half the show cringing. The attempts at progressive jokes are tried, and for a show that's supposed to be set in a racially, culturally diverse and vibrant city (NYC), it seems lacking.
Fringe Fridays - One Night in October
I think Fringe may be the best exploration J.J. Abrams has offered of the possibilities supplied by alternate universes. From the can of worms Walter Bishop has wraught on his and Walternate's universes by stealing the "other" Peter, to the minute choices individuals make that alter entire lives.
This week both Olivia and faux-Livia teamed up with Alt-Lincoln to track down and stop a serial killer in the other universe by using his alter who diverged from his inherent destructive behavior because of one person. The outcomes for both versions of the professor were sad, to say the least.
Walter is taking more drastic steps to block the apparations of Peter by covering any reflective surfaces, and blasting Mozart to drown out the sound of Peter's wavering voice. Peter's sacrifice at the end of the last season is gearing up to be the big question I hope this season will solve, "What happened to Peter Bishop?"
This week both Olivia and faux-Livia teamed up with Alt-Lincoln to track down and stop a serial killer in the other universe by using his alter who diverged from his inherent destructive behavior because of one person. The outcomes for both versions of the professor were sad, to say the least.
Walter is taking more drastic steps to block the apparations of Peter by covering any reflective surfaces, and blasting Mozart to drown out the sound of Peter's wavering voice. Peter's sacrifice at the end of the last season is gearing up to be the big question I hope this season will solve, "What happened to Peter Bishop?"
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Binge and Purge
Primetime is back, baby!
Fall makes me think of Andy Williams singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" because of the bevy of returning shows and fresh meat. It also makes me bemoan the fact that I don't possess a DVR, and have to rely on TV lottery and a hefty dose of faith in networks posting things online quickly.
Last week was premiere week, and the lack of posts can be attributed to the fact that I was a couch potato with a quick draw. I'm currently watching:
- Boardwalk Empire
- Inspector Lewis
- How I Met Your Mother
- 2 Broke Girls (giving it a try, we'll get to this)
- Glee
- New Girl
- Law & Order: UK (the only L&O left)
- Luther
- Project Runway
- The Big Bang Theory
- Community
- Whitney
- Fringe
- Doctor Who
Looking at that list makes me think I should get out more... whatever.
Of the returning shows, I was only crazy excited for Community. TBBT lost me about a season back when it tried to push the nerd+girl next door thing as the next ross/rachel ship for the ENTIRE season. It was agonizing and made both characters involved unappealing to say the least. Anyway, the two episodes that compiled the hour long premiere were promising, and seemed like the show's dynamic was returning to the nerdy camaraderie of the four central guys.
I still hate CBS for moving it from Monday nights to Thursday, in the SAME time slot as Community. The latter was excellently weird, with the addition of John Goodman as the asst. Dean who really holds the power at Greendale. Man alive, I've missed the study group.
Some of the new shows I checked out like Ringer and Reven8e, seem hampered by the networks they're on. Ringer suffers from a case of CW-itis; even though it's got SMG (yay, Buffy!) and an interesting premise, it just feels like it's skewing to the teen crowd. Reven8e suffers from a premise that seems better suited to a miniseries. If the 8 in the title is an indication of the body count by the end of the season, I'm wondering if it'll make it to season 2.
The comedies are a mixed bag. There are elements of the three new ones I checked out that I like, and other bits that were painful enough to induce second hand embarrassment. Whitney has, by all accounts, the potential to be a pretty funny show, but the title character comes off as too self centered for me to give a shit when she flubs comedically. I don't know why execs insist on shoving live studio audience canned laughter down our throats, but it doesn't carry the nostalgic charm that it has on older shows.
2 Broke Girls, a CBS offering, co-created by the Whitney of the aforementioned show, is much better in terms of premise, but anchored to the 90s by way of jokes. Seriously, it's 2011, and we're getting jokes about the fobby Asian owner the two girls work for who's cultural gaffes lead to generalizing jokes?! Um, no. Even TBBT at it's most god-awful "2 1/2 Men" channelling handled Indian-jokes-by-way-of-Raj better. I love that it's a show about 2 20-something girls trying to find their financial footing in NY, but the cheap shots and wink, wink hipster hating jokes have got to go.
Checked out New Girl after Glee, and for the most part it was cute. Not great by any means, but just...meh, cute. Zooey D can't swing an ANGRY rage for beans, it was like watching a 7 year old throw a tantrum with the deluded impression that it's threatening.
Glee has to do a shit-ton of work to get back on the ball. This week had a disappointing lack of diversity in songs, or even an appearance of songs, for that matter. I dislike the presentation of Quinn's sudden "rebellion" as pink hair, Hot Topic gear by way of Forever 21, and sneering. The character shaming (coming from GLEE members & Mr. Shue) for going around with that sort of appearance completely contradicted what I thought the club stood for and Quinn's return to demure 50's esque cheerleader at the end was lame. Am I going to have to quit this show come May too?
No words on Boardwalk Empire, Fringe, or Inspector Lewis because they are AWESOME! Full stop. Okay, maybe a few. BE does the slow burn a little too well, and even though the pace is slow, it looks like the house of cards is starting to wobble for Nucky T. His mistress, Margaret Schroeder is my absolute favorite character of that show, mostly because I think Kelly Macdonald is fantastic. But the sheer fact that Margaret starts off as this shy, uncertain, newly widowed woman and emerges as this calculating, quietly powerful mistress is one of the best things about that show. Fringe is spookin' me out with the flashes of Peter and the teases of the great mystery of it all, and yet, I can't help but love it.
Fall makes me think of Andy Williams singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" because of the bevy of returning shows and fresh meat. It also makes me bemoan the fact that I don't possess a DVR, and have to rely on TV lottery and a hefty dose of faith in networks posting things online quickly.
Last week was premiere week, and the lack of posts can be attributed to the fact that I was a couch potato with a quick draw. I'm currently watching:
- Boardwalk Empire
- Inspector Lewis
- How I Met Your Mother
- 2 Broke Girls (giving it a try, we'll get to this)
- Glee
- New Girl
- Law & Order: UK (the only L&O left)
- Luther
- Project Runway
- The Big Bang Theory
- Community
- Whitney
- Fringe
- Doctor Who
Looking at that list makes me think I should get out more... whatever.
Of the returning shows, I was only crazy excited for Community. TBBT lost me about a season back when it tried to push the nerd+girl next door thing as the next ross/rachel ship for the ENTIRE season. It was agonizing and made both characters involved unappealing to say the least. Anyway, the two episodes that compiled the hour long premiere were promising, and seemed like the show's dynamic was returning to the nerdy camaraderie of the four central guys.
I still hate CBS for moving it from Monday nights to Thursday, in the SAME time slot as Community. The latter was excellently weird, with the addition of John Goodman as the asst. Dean who really holds the power at Greendale. Man alive, I've missed the study group.
Some of the new shows I checked out like Ringer and Reven8e, seem hampered by the networks they're on. Ringer suffers from a case of CW-itis; even though it's got SMG (yay, Buffy!) and an interesting premise, it just feels like it's skewing to the teen crowd. Reven8e suffers from a premise that seems better suited to a miniseries. If the 8 in the title is an indication of the body count by the end of the season, I'm wondering if it'll make it to season 2.
The comedies are a mixed bag. There are elements of the three new ones I checked out that I like, and other bits that were painful enough to induce second hand embarrassment. Whitney has, by all accounts, the potential to be a pretty funny show, but the title character comes off as too self centered for me to give a shit when she flubs comedically. I don't know why execs insist on shoving live studio audience canned laughter down our throats, but it doesn't carry the nostalgic charm that it has on older shows.
2 Broke Girls, a CBS offering, co-created by the Whitney of the aforementioned show, is much better in terms of premise, but anchored to the 90s by way of jokes. Seriously, it's 2011, and we're getting jokes about the fobby Asian owner the two girls work for who's cultural gaffes lead to generalizing jokes?! Um, no. Even TBBT at it's most god-awful "2 1/2 Men" channelling handled Indian-jokes-by-way-of-Raj better. I love that it's a show about 2 20-something girls trying to find their financial footing in NY, but the cheap shots and wink, wink hipster hating jokes have got to go.
Checked out New Girl after Glee, and for the most part it was cute. Not great by any means, but just...meh, cute. Zooey D can't swing an ANGRY rage for beans, it was like watching a 7 year old throw a tantrum with the deluded impression that it's threatening.
Glee has to do a shit-ton of work to get back on the ball. This week had a disappointing lack of diversity in songs, or even an appearance of songs, for that matter. I dislike the presentation of Quinn's sudden "rebellion" as pink hair, Hot Topic gear by way of Forever 21, and sneering. The character shaming (coming from GLEE members & Mr. Shue) for going around with that sort of appearance completely contradicted what I thought the club stood for and Quinn's return to demure 50's esque cheerleader at the end was lame. Am I going to have to quit this show come May too?
No words on Boardwalk Empire, Fringe, or Inspector Lewis because they are AWESOME! Full stop. Okay, maybe a few. BE does the slow burn a little too well, and even though the pace is slow, it looks like the house of cards is starting to wobble for Nucky T. His mistress, Margaret Schroeder is my absolute favorite character of that show, mostly because I think Kelly Macdonald is fantastic. But the sheer fact that Margaret starts off as this shy, uncertain, newly widowed woman and emerges as this calculating, quietly powerful mistress is one of the best things about that show. Fringe is spookin' me out with the flashes of Peter and the teases of the great mystery of it all, and yet, I can't help but love it.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Hibernator
Wow, I'm pretty awful to this blog. I've let it sit for an entire season, ugh. In that time, at least three or four shows fell off of my MUST WATCH list, I've entertained the thought of renaming this blog: You Should Be Watching (Why? It sounded catchier in my head), and I've become obsessed...OBSESSED with a few other shows.
Here's a super quick recap; think of it as a cold open to this blog (Revamped! Just kidding).
- Glee's become a dull, 7th Heaven esque morality trip of the week, with glorified characters and less than stellar musical performances. Plus, original songs? Do not want. If season 3 is full of the type of episodes that dragged this season down, I'm out for good.
- Southland KILLED NATE. UGGHHH. I get that Kevin Alejandro jumped ship for True Blood, but I feel betrayed. It was excellent as far as character deaths go, completely out of left field and true to the series' style, but oh so gut wrenching. The ensemble dynamic's completely shifted and I hope they manage to keep it going for the next season.
- Speaking of actor's jumping ship...Being Human killed Mitchell. MITCHELL! One of the three central characters in the show! While I'm delighted that Aidan Turner is going to be in The Hobbit, I'm devastated that BH is left with a couple of werewolves, a ghost, and not much else. Oh, wait, an upcoming vampire issue that seems like it came straight out of The Vampire Diaries.
- Big Love ended. Bill died, a bunch of other people went nuts, and I was surprised that it didn't end the way I thought it would; with Bill alone and sad, and each of the wives slowly finding their independence free of the polygamous relationship. Still, it had a good run.
- Damages is dead. By route of the Bermuda Triangle I'm thinking. It got shunted over to DirecTV's cable channel and I've never seen a new episode since. What gives?
- Caprica's dead too. Who didn't see that coming, it had potential, but aimed too high.
- Merlin hit crazytown. And Uther's STILL NOT DEAD. OH MY GOSH, Arthur and Gwen will get married and Uther will still be alive. It's a level of myth mangling I haven't seen since Robin Hood.
- Legend of the Seeker got brutally canceled after two glorious seasons. What a shame, that had all the potential of following Hercules and Xena down that fantasy route.
What is wasn't was Game of Thrones, and that's probably why it was canceled. GoT will slap you upside your head with it's "in your face" gore, sex, and all around awesomeness. George R. R. Martin takes no prisoners, and thank God HBO didn't shirk from a faithful adaptation of it. Beloved characters still meet horrible ends, and fantastic storytelling is to be had. Can you tell I'm in love?
Other shows I watch have also been canceled, including J.J. Abrams' "Undercovers," which started out good but quickly became a snorefest (It's no wonder UST rules the partner dynamics in shows, who really wants to watch a happily coupled pair fight crime? Uh, not I) and Life Unexpected.
Also started watching some new stuff: Secret Diary of a Call Girl (EXCELLENT, by the way. It's over too, unfortunately, but more by virtue of it being a British production, and those sadly never last long), Episodes (Which made me adore Matt LeBlanc), The Inbetweeners (How I'd imagine my best friends and I would act if we were lads), is returning stateside and I've got my calendar marked. White Collar and Covert Affairs are returning so that plus the bevy of superhero movies coming out make summer a promising season!
Addendum: How could I forget Community? BBT's been laid by the wayside as it's deviated away from it's geeky glory and edged more towards Two and a Half Men type of jokes (read: fratboy, sexual based jokes) Meanwhile, Community has been amping it up, covering flashbacks in a series of meta flashbacks (excellent episode), slyly referencing things that happened in previous episodes (continuity win!), and finishing off with an epic two parter paintball masterpiece. Oh Community, you cover the pop culture genius in academia so much better than your professorial Cal Tech brethren in Pasadena.
Here's a super quick recap; think of it as a cold open to this blog (Revamped! Just kidding).
- Glee's become a dull, 7th Heaven esque morality trip of the week, with glorified characters and less than stellar musical performances. Plus, original songs? Do not want. If season 3 is full of the type of episodes that dragged this season down, I'm out for good.
- Southland KILLED NATE. UGGHHH. I get that Kevin Alejandro jumped ship for True Blood, but I feel betrayed. It was excellent as far as character deaths go, completely out of left field and true to the series' style, but oh so gut wrenching. The ensemble dynamic's completely shifted and I hope they manage to keep it going for the next season.
- Speaking of actor's jumping ship...Being Human killed Mitchell. MITCHELL! One of the three central characters in the show! While I'm delighted that Aidan Turner is going to be in The Hobbit, I'm devastated that BH is left with a couple of werewolves, a ghost, and not much else. Oh, wait, an upcoming vampire issue that seems like it came straight out of The Vampire Diaries.
- Big Love ended. Bill died, a bunch of other people went nuts, and I was surprised that it didn't end the way I thought it would; with Bill alone and sad, and each of the wives slowly finding their independence free of the polygamous relationship. Still, it had a good run.
- Damages is dead. By route of the Bermuda Triangle I'm thinking. It got shunted over to DirecTV's cable channel and I've never seen a new episode since. What gives?
- Caprica's dead too. Who didn't see that coming, it had potential, but aimed too high.
- Merlin hit crazytown. And Uther's STILL NOT DEAD. OH MY GOSH, Arthur and Gwen will get married and Uther will still be alive. It's a level of myth mangling I haven't seen since Robin Hood.
- Legend of the Seeker got brutally canceled after two glorious seasons. What a shame, that had all the potential of following Hercules and Xena down that fantasy route.
What is wasn't was Game of Thrones, and that's probably why it was canceled. GoT will slap you upside your head with it's "in your face" gore, sex, and all around awesomeness. George R. R. Martin takes no prisoners, and thank God HBO didn't shirk from a faithful adaptation of it. Beloved characters still meet horrible ends, and fantastic storytelling is to be had. Can you tell I'm in love?
Other shows I watch have also been canceled, including J.J. Abrams' "Undercovers," which started out good but quickly became a snorefest (It's no wonder UST rules the partner dynamics in shows, who really wants to watch a happily coupled pair fight crime? Uh, not I) and Life Unexpected.
Also started watching some new stuff: Secret Diary of a Call Girl (EXCELLENT, by the way. It's over too, unfortunately, but more by virtue of it being a British production, and those sadly never last long), Episodes (Which made me adore Matt LeBlanc), The Inbetweeners (How I'd imagine my best friends and I would act if we were lads), is returning stateside and I've got my calendar marked. White Collar and Covert Affairs are returning so that plus the bevy of superhero movies coming out make summer a promising season!
Addendum: How could I forget Community? BBT's been laid by the wayside as it's deviated away from it's geeky glory and edged more towards Two and a Half Men type of jokes (read: fratboy, sexual based jokes) Meanwhile, Community has been amping it up, covering flashbacks in a series of meta flashbacks (excellent episode), slyly referencing things that happened in previous episodes (continuity win!), and finishing off with an epic two parter paintball masterpiece. Oh Community, you cover the pop culture genius in academia so much better than your professorial Cal Tech brethren in Pasadena.
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