Thursday, April 30, 2009

When's the Next South Park?

It's season 13 of South Park.
Isn't that nuts? Remember when they mocked the Simpson's for going on too long?

Well, I wouldn't say it's time to give up, in fact I'm asking - Where's the rest of the season?

We've only had 7 episodes, some of which were freakin' great...
I mean - will anyone ask you if you like fish sticks, without you responding with giggles, ever again?

So, where's the rest of the season?

Apparently, the Pirate episode (Fat Beard) was the "Mid-Season Finale" and the writers are all going on retreat to take a creative break.

Well, I guess that's ok.
But don't take too long.

I mean, we need your help with this swine flu! Jokes are awful and people are going nuts. I'm pretty sure Kenny, Kyle and Stan can figure it out...while Cartman profit's from it somehow.

Did you hear that South Park writers?
Make it so.

LOST and Jimmy Kimmel

I rarely watch Jimmy Kimmel, but the other night I caught this hilarious sketch with the writers from Lost:


Apparently, I've been missing out on an entire series where Kimmel utilizes the secretive nature of the show and characters from it to unveil funny, quick "secrets"

Other favorites:
Hurley!


and Kate does one as well...


But the best are the ones with Ben. They fit actor Michael Emerson's creepy delivery perfectly:




Check out Jimmy Kimmel tonight, when he hosts one of my FAVORITE comedians, Kumail Nanjiani.

Rescue Me, Back to Season 1 Basics in Season 5

How great was classic Denis Leary?
Comedian, Singer, Asshole:


Rescue Me -the first season was great because it took the Denis Leary character from his stand up, and heightened the character he played in The Job which if you aren't aware of or have never seen - it's Denis Leary playing a cop with most of the cast of Rescue Me. The difference is, in Rescue Me they are fire fighters coping with 9/11 and their crazy lifestyles.

The great thing about Season 1 Rescue Me was the sense of humor. It was definitely a dark comedy, but there was plenty of comic relief moments. As the series went on though, it got really bleak and Leary's character Tommy went off the deep end with booze, sex and other risky behaviors in a way that teetered between dark drama and Lifetime Original. It's still a wonderful series, and I recommend the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th seasons to people who love dramas - but it veered away from the great formula of black comedy that it did so well in the first season.

Season 5 has brought back the jovial firehouse antics, and the real moments of coping with loss, in a magnificently humorous way. Instead of tuning in expecting more death and sadness, season 5 seems almost like a rebirth of Tommy Gavin. He's off the booze and trying to deal with all the shit he's been through.

At the season premiere party that was shot for FX to play as bumpers between the airing of the premier on FX, many of the cast were taped saying, "This is the best season yet," and I am on board with this theory.

I mean, how could they be wrong with Michael J. Fox on the cast as a guy in a wheel chair that is dating Tommy's ex-wife and willing to kick Tommy's ass when need be?

If you're not watching this season because you thought it went too dark, I beg you to check back in on this hilarious dramedy.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Transatlanticism on Six Feet Under



I miss this show and wish the complete series box set
wasn't so darn expensive.

Here's the link to the entire song:
http://www.jango.com/stations/118614337/tunein?song_id=8544

Hulu's Not the Only Game in Town

Remember the days when all video was just on YouTube?

Then Hulu came around and got all these high quality videos from the studios and we were all so excited to have such access?

Well, there's more free goodness on the web lately.

FanCast, as my twitter followers have seen, is a new favorite of mine (speaking of new favorites, I LOVE How I Met Your Mother).

But the big news is that Sony's in the game with Crackle. Targeting men (isn't everyone though?) they have movies and tv shows. Get excited to watch all the Charlie's Angels you want this afternoon.

Dexter is Coming Back - Not Soon Enough



I love Dexter and season 3 was pretty great. It proved that Jimmy Smits is pretty awesome at being a serial killer you fear, where as Michael C. Hall is one you root for.

According to a new site I'm frequenting, TVBuddy, filming starts in May and we can expect Dexter to return to his Robin Hood Serial Killing ways in the fall.

If you can't hardly wait, watch season 3 on demand, or buy it, it's a decent price for a great season of television.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Jeff Goldblum is the Perfect Fit for Criminal Intent

THANK YOU!

Law & Order : Criminal Intent finally lived up to the very long hype.

On Sunday, April 26th the first Jeff Goldblum episode premiered making this season finally worth waiting for.

The episode entitled, “Rock Star” kicked off with a beautiful parade of hilarious Williamsburg stereotypes -they completely left out the Puerto Ricans though, have they become so extinct in this neighborhood that not even writers, that possibly live there, know they used to walk amongst the locals? The set up for the divide between hipsters, Orthodox and Bushwick natives was pretty priceless and dead on. It made me wonder if we can hope for an episode later this season where the Stuyvesant town Vets take on the Yuppie Off-Spring families.

The character Goldblum plays, Detective Nichols, was taken directly from a Law and Order generator:

-He’s a maverick genius

-He’s got a mysterious past

-He’s quirky

But the catch with Goldblum is that he has this Autastic* magnificence about him. He repeats things and says them with certain rhythms – and in one of the most campy L&O moments ever – he shows off his musical skills by sitting down and tickling the ivories with a pretty little ditty.

While Goldblum’s Nichols is charming to watch, and the writing and storyline far surpassed the season premiere, I couldn’t help but wish there was a scene that brought D’Onofrio’s Goren to match Nichols. I feel if these two were on the case it would be a magical symphony of sleuthing. I will stayed tuned in with eager anticipation.

*Autastic - hybrid of the words Austistic and fantastic

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dirty Desmond from LOST Accused of Sexual Harassment

Oh LOST cast members, you constantly remind us how no one is perfect.
With all your DWI's we loved you still...even now that the DWI cast members are gone.

But now with a lawsuit claiming that Henry Ian Cusick molested a crew member that was subsequently fired
, how do we feel?

Is this the end of the Desmond storyline? or are we going to have an old fashioned soap opera switch....

Yhe role of Desmond will now be played by...(insert non-sexually threatening actor here).

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Bea Arthur Died, Saturday, April 25, 2009

It is a sad story to write that today, we've lost another Golden Girl.

Bea Arthur died this morning at age 86. While many remember her for her wonderful portrayal as Dorothy, on Golden Girls, she was also known as sassy liberal Maude which aired on CBS during the 70's.

Maude
was a spin off of CBS's other 70's hit All In The Family.

One of my favorite Bea Arthur television moments though was more recent in her role as the babysitter on Malcom in the Middle.

She often took roles where she played a tough woman, but Bea had a great sense for comedic timing and sense of humor about herself. Below I've put in one of my all time favorite parodies of Sex in the City. Bea did this with other classic TV actors for the TV Land Awards in 2008.



Bea Arthur you will be missed.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Oprah's 90's Headline Show

I am going to admit something that I probably shouldn’t.

I’m not a fan of Oprah.

There. I SAID IT.

My sister will tell you that this is because I don’t like anything that everyone else likes. If there is something popular I hate on it and love the weirder, less commonly loved product. I hate Sex in the City, but I loved Two Guys, A Girl, …and a Pizza Place.

I don’t purposely hate all TV that most people love, I think it’s just that I consume more TV than most and have realized that Oprah kinda has the same show over and over and again. If it’s a good guest it might be worth a watch, but really it’s not something I’d ever DVR.

EXCEPT –

If she has my 90’s idol, Tanya Harding, on the program.

Ok, so I didn’t really idolize Tanya Harding, but I was a fanatic of her and the case brought against her regarding her involvement in the Nancy Karrigan knee-whacking.

So, when I saw the commercial preview of the interview I just had to watch Oprah.

I DVR’d it and watched it this morning and I have to say the interview with Tanya was everything I wanted it to be. She admitted her biggest mistake was to marry an idiot, and then said she’s sick of apologizing to Nancy Kerrigan.

Oh Tanya! You never did change. Well, she does seem a little older, and wiser.

The best part of the interview was when Oprah asked her, “Now, really what would you say to Nancy Karrigan if she were here? And, don’t worry, this isn’t the type of show that would bring her out to surprise you now.”

Silly Oprah! You should do a show about your show in the 90’s, because you totally used to do that.

I doubt there will be daily DVRing of miss O, but I have to say I do dig the older, wiser Oprah as well. I really liked her inspirational speeches about how we just have to overcome the fear of getting what we dream to be, and how we have to continue to move forward in life.

When it comes to life advice though, I still say I’m sticking to listening to RuPaul. Because honey – if you don’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love anybody else?

Can I get an Amen in here?!!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

LOST Catch Up Show...is Anyone Falling For This?

I came home early enough to catch Jeopardy today, which is always the sign of a nice night in.

And then realized that it's also Wednesday, so I can watch LOST
live tonight instead of tomorrow morning. (God bless ye, DVR)

But, I check the line up and sure enough there's a freakin' catch-up show.

Come on! Let's be honest ABC, you should know by now that there's no one jumping aboard at this point of the journey.

It's not that simple, I mean there were 4 seasons before this that we loyal fans didn't just "watch" we freakin' researched each episode and built charts and maps to follow it. We spent weekends of our lives re-watching it instead of going outside, drawing the blinds if it dare get sunny and glare the screen causing us to miss the most delicate clue.

Don't fool us by saying all you need is a clip show to catch up.

But...

I will say after watching the recap show in the beginning of this season my instant reaction was - I can't believe I've spent four years of my life obsessing when they just summed up all that shit in an hour.

So, if you ever thought about checking out LOST try a clip show.

But....

I still have to try....

ABC what if I made you a deal and promised to make like 2 friends watch LOST? And all of the LOST fans promised this, so you don't have to run these stupid filler shows and we can get on with the answers.

I'm just really pumped for the Faraday episode, and it sucks that I'll be watching the clip show tonight.

Oh, yeah, I'll still watch a clip show. I'm a LOST fan, we're all kinda nuts like that.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Law and Order Criminal Intent Overhyped

For the past two months whenever I've been at home watching my Law & Order: SVU or CI, or Monk marathons on USA I've seen the commercials for the new season of Criminal Intent and gotten progressively more and more stoked.

Not only was the crazy-ass detective Goren (played by the equally crazy-ass amazing Vincent D'Onofrio) going to be back, but Jeff Goldblum was joining the cast!
Look at him, he looks like a wily detective - this had awesomeness all over it.

So, I patiently waited for the ability to program my DVR and watch this amazing debut. To psych myself up I watched the entire marathon of Criminal Intent all day on Sunday. While watching though the commercials seemed to hype Goldblum less, and less...

I still wanted to watch though, because they promised it would be disturbing. Although I hate scary movies, I adore creepy stories of killers being brought to justice - I'm aware that's a little odd.
Anyway, I deciced I was going to DVR Family Guy and watch Criminal Intent live because I had waited so long for it's triumpant return.

What a f'in let down.

It was a straight forward story, with a little bit of sexual abuse that SVU would've handled much better, and all-in-all a giant disappointment. It didn't even have a really break-down crazy interrogation scene. Boooooring.

I should've watched Family Guy instead. That had a better legal thriller afoot. The medical marijuana episode was way more epic than the Criminal Intent premier. Which proves again, I should go with my teenage viewing instinct and save my adult contemporary viewing for a rainy day.

Let's hope next week's episode is more Goldblumier, or even a little Goldblumy.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Importance of TV Show Themes

I remember around the mid-90's my mother telling me that she had read an article stating that they were no longer to have theme songs on television shows.
"It takes up time for commercials, if they go straight into the show, it makes more money."

This was devastating to me. I love theme songs. I still do.
And to show the importance of good theme songs, I now present to you a clip I found from YouTube, called Disturbing Stokes.


It's as if Alan Thicke and all his composing glory never existed!

Creepy Commercial



If your orgasm is like a fog horn, you really might need KY gel. There shouldn't be steam.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

House M.D. Suicide Special, For the Good of the Nation?

SPOILER ALERT

Loyal watchers of House know that last night (4.6.09) something absolutely inexplicable happened.

Kutner, was found with a bullet to the head by 13 and Foreman.

WTF?

The episode dealt with everyone's reactions and of course, House was inappropriate and self centered and Wilson tried to pull him through (sleep with each other already!)

But apparently this character self assassination was for a higher power. Apparently, the character is going onto the White House to serve the president.

That's right folks, Kumar aka Kutner aka Kal Penn is going to be President Obama's public relations guy.

Fine, you got a more important job, but was it necessary for the suicide, and let's not forget the memorial page plug??

Friday, April 3, 2009

Rescue Me from Trust Me

Remember when I loved Trust Me?

Well, this week I realized I fell out of love with it when I saw on my DVR list that I had two hours of unwatched episodes and had no desire to watch it.

What happened? I really like the characters, and the concept is fun. So, why is it that I'd rather re-watch an episode of The Real Housewives of New York then sit through my Trust Me catch-up?

The storyline got a little too real. After finally getting the big deal from taking a big risk, the entire advertising firm is hanging by a thread with the threat of cutbacks due to the bad economy.
Ding, ding, ugh.

There's a reason why Paul Blart: Mall Cop swept the country as the number 1 comedy (but do we really have to do it all again?). People don't want to think at all about the horrible state of the economy. If I wanted to watch people work their asses off to keep their job, I would just go into the office for funzies on a "mandatory vacation" day.

It's not to say we don't want any realistic dramatic television. I can't wait for the new episodes of Rescue Me(April 7th...so close!!). I know this season will not be anywhere near as whimsical as season 1, in fact this show gets darker each season, but at least it's got the humor to match it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, dramadies might be a little darker these days, but let's try to make them so real not that it loses the feel of entertainment. Trust Me had such promise for upbeat quirkiness, but now I am not interested in tuning in because it's going to be as upbeat a business report.