Last night's episode of Community was simply one of the greatest half hours in television history...
...if you've ever played D&D.
Showing posts with label Teevee Snobbery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teevee Snobbery. Show all posts
Going Viral In 3... 2... 1...
I'll add in the clip in the morning, but John Stewart eviscerated Fox News tonight. Eviscerated them. "Hoist on their own petard" is a woefully inadequate expression for the massive amount of self-inflicted pain he rained down on their heads in his opening segment.
The follow-up with Oliver and Cenac was good too, but it lacked an obvious killshot - that "evil" is the only possible answer, because they know that the bulk of their audience is too stupid to ask questions about the gaps they're leaving in their fear-mongering.
UPDATE: Apparently, the Comedy Network doesn't believe in embed codes anymore. Morons.
The follow-up with Oliver and Cenac was good too, but it lacked an obvious killshot - that "evil" is the only possible answer, because they know that the bulk of their audience is too stupid to ask questions about the gaps they're leaving in their fear-mongering.
UPDATE: Apparently, the Comedy Network doesn't believe in embed codes anymore. Morons.
Sammi Sweetheart Is Gonna Be Soooo Jealous
Apparently, I missed the single stupidest political scandal evah when it broke a couple of days ago.
At least it seems stupid on the surface, but dig a little deeper. What possible motive could Obama have for denying that he even knows who Snooki is... unless...
OMFG OBAMA IS HAVING AN ILLICIT MISCEGENATION WITH SNOOKI!!!!11!!1!eleventyone!
That's right, the only logical conclusion that can possibly be drawn from this earth-shaking scandal is that Obama and Snooki have been secretly doin' the nasty.
Congress can't ignore this any longer! Impeachment proceedings MUST begin immediately!
At least it seems stupid on the surface, but dig a little deeper. What possible motive could Obama have for denying that he even knows who Snooki is... unless...
OMFG OBAMA IS HAVING AN ILLICIT MISCEGENATION WITH SNOOKI!!!!11!!1!eleventyone!
That's right, the only logical conclusion that can possibly be drawn from this earth-shaking scandal is that Obama and Snooki have been secretly doin' the nasty.
Congress can't ignore this any longer! Impeachment proceedings MUST begin immediately!
It's Now Or Never, CNN
I slag the state of modern "journalism" with abandon most of the time, but I'll give a bit of credit to the AP for stepping up its game recently.
The take-away from this, though, has to be Ron Fournier's comment that the AP's new emphasis on fact-checking (what used to be known in media circles as "doing your god-damned job") has brought about an increase in traffic.
Campbell Brown is also leaving her CNN prime time show, and the network entirely, because she doesn't feel she can complete with her hyper-partisan competitors Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann. As she said:
Hmm. Think CNN will take the hint, ditch their pathetic attempt to claim a middle ground by appeasing both parties equally, and just try being journalists for a change?
Or will they just revive some bastard clone of Crossfire and continue perfecting their ability to parrot Dem and Pub talking points?
The take-away from this, though, has to be Ron Fournier's comment that the AP's new emphasis on fact-checking (what used to be known in media circles as "doing your god-damned job") has brought about an increase in traffic.
Campbell Brown is also leaving her CNN prime time show, and the network entirely, because she doesn't feel she can complete with her hyper-partisan competitors Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann. As she said:
I owe it to myself to get out of the way, so that CNN can try something else. CNN will have to figure out what that is.
Hmm. Think CNN will take the hint, ditch their pathetic attempt to claim a middle ground by appeasing both parties equally, and just try being journalists for a change?
Or will they just revive some bastard clone of Crossfire and continue perfecting their ability to parrot Dem and Pub talking points?
I Give It Four Episodes
I just watched the premiere of Happy Town. Crazy cast: Sam Neill, Amy Acker, Steven Weber, Tom Friendly, the ex-member of the Canadian Ad Mafia who scored a sitcom, that guy who isn't Peter Krause, Parker Lewis' former nemesis... it's a heck of a cast.
Too bad they'll all be unemployed in about a month.
The show seems to be aiming for some kind of midpoint between Twin Peaks and Picket Fences, skewing a little bit more David Lynch's way than David E Kelley's, and based on the first episode it certainly seemed to have some possibilities. And I guess, with Lost winding down, now's as good a time as any to try and get that audience hooked on another cock-tease of a show that will never pay off its mysteries. But I just don't see Happy Town taking off.
For one thing, it's set in Minnesota, so the hotties on the show will be wearing parkas and not skimpy torn clothing and/or bikinis. For another, the writing is kind of silly, and not in a tongue-in-cheek way. It's hard to take a show seriously when the big bad is called The Magic Man. I kept waiting for a Wilson sister cameo.
I'll probably keep watching -- Neill's having fun being creepy, and Acker is still thecutest second-cutest woman (my apologies to Karen Gillan) on television, although hopefully they give her more to do down the road. But at this point, it doesn't look like the show will be anything special.
Too bad they'll all be unemployed in about a month.
The show seems to be aiming for some kind of midpoint between Twin Peaks and Picket Fences, skewing a little bit more David Lynch's way than David E Kelley's, and based on the first episode it certainly seemed to have some possibilities. And I guess, with Lost winding down, now's as good a time as any to try and get that audience hooked on another cock-tease of a show that will never pay off its mysteries. But I just don't see Happy Town taking off.
For one thing, it's set in Minnesota, so the hotties on the show will be wearing parkas and not skimpy torn clothing and/or bikinis. For another, the writing is kind of silly, and not in a tongue-in-cheek way. It's hard to take a show seriously when the big bad is called The Magic Man. I kept waiting for a Wilson sister cameo.
I'll probably keep watching -- Neill's having fun being creepy, and Acker is still the
Pre-History of the Teabagger Movement, Part 17
I'm watching WWE Vintage, the show where the WWE digs into the vaults and shows 'classic' matches such as a 20-man battle royal won by Bob Backlund, during the days when he was getting an inexplicable push from Vince despite his lack of anything resembling charisma, size or a bodybuilder's physique.
Anyway, the match immediately following is Lex Lugar vs Tatanka, the Native American Warrior. Tatanka at the time was a bad guy, and palling around with the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, so the crowd was firmly behind Lugar.
At one point in the match, Tatanka had Lugar in the corner and was pounding on him. The crowd, in an effort to energize Lugar, began chanting... 'USA! USA! USA!'
Because, y'know, Native American isn't "real" American.
I'd be willing to guess at least 75% of all the people in the crowd chanting 'USA! USA!' back then now own a copy of Going Rogue.
Anyway, the match immediately following is Lex Lugar vs Tatanka, the Native American Warrior. Tatanka at the time was a bad guy, and palling around with the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, so the crowd was firmly behind Lugar.
At one point in the match, Tatanka had Lugar in the corner and was pounding on him. The crowd, in an effort to energize Lugar, began chanting... 'USA! USA! USA!'
Because, y'know, Native American isn't "real" American.
I'd be willing to guess at least 75% of all the people in the crowd chanting 'USA! USA!' back then now own a copy of Going Rogue.
Worst Oscars Ever
Certainly the worst Oscars of my lifetime anyway. I'm not even referring to the choices for nominees and winners, which more and more seem to be aimed solely at disproving all that 'wisdom of crowds' bullshit.
I'm talking about the actual production of the show itself. From the technical glitch that prevented them from showing clips from the Best Cinematography noms, to the decision to cut people's speeches short but leave in all the cringe-worthy "hey, wow, you're great" speeches fellating the Best Actor/Actress nominees, to the Twilight whoring in a desperate attempt to get a younger demo watching the show, to the bizarre camera angles they used (the Stanley Tucci Cam, positioned right behind his head, was probably my favourite)... the whole thing was just bad. Martin and Baldwin were amusing at best. The dance number awkwardly attached to the Best Score noms was just plain sad, and this coming from a guy who unabashedly admits to being hooked on So You Think You Can Dance.
And the less said about using "I Am Woman" as Bigelow's send-off music, the better.
Just an inexcusably sloppy, poorly thought out train wreck all around.
I'm talking about the actual production of the show itself. From the technical glitch that prevented them from showing clips from the Best Cinematography noms, to the decision to cut people's speeches short but leave in all the cringe-worthy "hey, wow, you're great" speeches fellating the Best Actor/Actress nominees, to the Twilight whoring in a desperate attempt to get a younger demo watching the show, to the bizarre camera angles they used (the Stanley Tucci Cam, positioned right behind his head, was probably my favourite)... the whole thing was just bad. Martin and Baldwin were amusing at best. The dance number awkwardly attached to the Best Score noms was just plain sad, and this coming from a guy who unabashedly admits to being hooked on So You Think You Can Dance.
And the less said about using "I Am Woman" as Bigelow's send-off music, the better.
Just an inexcusably sloppy, poorly thought out train wreck all around.
Morons
So it's the biggest night in the history of TNA wrestling. They've hired Hulk Hogan, and are broadcasting live and head-to-head against Raw, just like WCW used to do in the good not-so-old days. So what do they air as the first match on a night when they probably have more new eyes watching them than ever before?
They jerk the curtain with an eight-man X-division cage match, fill it with luchas and other crazy little whippit wrestlers... and then have it in a cage built with thick red bars so that you can't even see what's going inside.
Oh, and then they undercut whatever heat the X-division guys might have generated for themselves (if anybody could see what they were doing, of course, which they couldn't) by bringing out Jeff Hardy during the match.
Clearly, TNA's idea of revolutionizing the industry is to repeat all of WCW's mistakes, without repeating any of their good ideas.
Oh, and what happens when I flip over to the start of the Fiesta Bowl in disgust? There's John Cena at midfield for the coin toss, and though to remind all the channel-flippers like me "Hey, Raw starts in an hour".
TNA's already dead, and they don't even know it. They've got some great talent (older guys like Kurt Angle and Mick Foley, who's still great on a mic even if he probably shouldn't wrestle, plus younger stars like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe) but they can't get out of their way enough to let them shine, and everything else about the company just screams bush league. It's sad.
Vince didn't even need to swallow his pride and bring back Bret Hart for one last hurrah.
They jerk the curtain with an eight-man X-division cage match, fill it with luchas and other crazy little whippit wrestlers... and then have it in a cage built with thick red bars so that you can't even see what's going inside.
Oh, and then they undercut whatever heat the X-division guys might have generated for themselves (if anybody could see what they were doing, of course, which they couldn't) by bringing out Jeff Hardy during the match.
Clearly, TNA's idea of revolutionizing the industry is to repeat all of WCW's mistakes, without repeating any of their good ideas.
Oh, and what happens when I flip over to the start of the Fiesta Bowl in disgust? There's John Cena at midfield for the coin toss, and though to remind all the channel-flippers like me "Hey, Raw starts in an hour".
TNA's already dead, and they don't even know it. They've got some great talent (older guys like Kurt Angle and Mick Foley, who's still great on a mic even if he probably shouldn't wrestle, plus younger stars like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe) but they can't get out of their way enough to let them shine, and everything else about the company just screams bush league. It's sad.
Vince didn't even need to swallow his pride and bring back Bret Hart for one last hurrah.
Yeah, I'm Marking Out a Bit
Bret Hart's coming back to the WWE next week, with a storyline likely building to a match with Vince and/or Shawn at Wrestlemania.
Now if only the WWE actually had some younger talent worth a damn... Seamus as the champ? Seriously? That's the best they can do?
Now if only the WWE actually had some younger talent worth a damn... Seamus as the champ? Seriously? That's the best they can do?
Interesting
Dollhouse's ratings continue to tank. 2.1 million viewers in the 18-49 demo? Yeesh.
It almost doesn't matter though. The show's second season figured to be a network test case for the concept of broadcasting a show based on projected future DVD sales rather than present ratings anyway. Fox has treated their Friday night lineup as a spec fic dumping ground ever since they struck gold with the X-Files, so it makes sense that they would finally go all the way with the idea and use Fridays as a way to try and create profitable franchises instead of just hit shows.
It almost doesn't matter though. The show's second season figured to be a network test case for the concept of broadcasting a show based on projected future DVD sales rather than present ratings anyway. Fox has treated their Friday night lineup as a spec fic dumping ground ever since they struck gold with the X-Files, so it makes sense that they would finally go all the way with the idea and use Fridays as a way to try and create profitable franchises instead of just hit shows.
Glee
I'm reserving judgement until I see the first proper episode tonight.
The pilot-y thing was fun, but not perfect. For one thing, while it's just about mandatory for a high school show to deal with peer pressure and conformity issues, it's downright annoying for one of the adult characters to tell you flat out "High school is about conformity" every five minutes or so. And I'm having trouble forgiving them for using that song as the club's big number, although my fingers are crossed that it's a sign Journey is about to finally jump the shark and cross back into the realm of the uncool.
The writing was otherwise sharp and the cast excellent though, so here's hoping.
Out of the Park!
Your Daily Show Bud Light Highlight of the Night:
John Oliver: Obama's popularity is down eight points.John Stewart: No president's honeymoon period lasts forever! It's a marathon!John Oliver: Which, as a Kenyan, he should be great at.
Boom goes the dynamite!
Goin' Old School
Waaaaay back in the day I did a ranty-style film column. Had the gig continued, one of the regular features would have been me spotlighting young actors and actresses I thought had a future (the first one to receive my golden touch was Tara Subkoff, who hasn't exactly set the world on fire as a performer -- but by choice, not because she lacked the talent.)
Since my second-favorite House episode is on right now I thought I'd revive the feature and give a little attention to another actress who, in my extremely important and insightful opinion, has greatness in her: Katheryn Winnick.
Sure, she's rather stunningly beautiful. She's pulled off the CSI trifecta, appearing in all three shows. And (unbeknownst to me until I hit her IMDB page) she's a Torontonian, which gets her bonus points. It also looks like she's having a good run career-wise right now, scoring a big role in Paul Giamatti's Uncle Vanya riff Cold Souls as well as in the upcoming PDK adaptation Radio Free Albemuth.
But mainly what she has, and which screams through in One Day, One Room, is a ridiculous level of intensity. It might be her black belt background, as there's a definite level of physicality in her acting style that, frankly, is really rare in women (and which leads me to think there's some A-list, Sarah Connor-esque action roles in her future if she wants them), but whatever Winnick's secret weapon is, it leaps off the screen.
She's gorgeous, she's talented, and she makes an impression. In Hollywood, that's a formula for big-time success.
Peggy Noonan Admits That Republicans Are Children
Peggy "Just Keep Walking" Noonan lets slip the truth:
"Let's play grown-up." When I was a child, that's what we said when we ran out of things to do like playing potsie or throwing rocks in the vacant lot. You'd go in and take your father's hat and your mother's purse and walk around saying, "Would you like tea?" In retrospect we weren't imitating our parents but parents on TV, who wore pearls and suits. But the point is we amused ourselves trying to be little adults.And that's what the GOP should do right now: play grown-up.
Y'all read that the same way I do, right? That Peggy Noonan realizes that the Republican Party right now is made up of a bunch of children, and that the best they can do in terms of maturity is to "play" grown-up?
Suddenly I'm having flashbacks to this. Co-starring Rush Limbaugh as the Gorgon!
I'm in Shock
4th and Long is actually compelling TV.
I think the clincher for me is one of the things that got me hooked on the American So You Think You Can Dance? last season (which, in my mind, was probably the greatest season in reality TV history): there's no real pot of gold at the end of this. None of these guys are going to be stars in the NFL; hell, whoever wins might not even make it off the practice squad.
These guys are out there because they're football players, and they want to play on the biggest stage they can.
Temporary Insanity? WTF, John?
I'm watching the full Cliff May-John Stewart interview (those are the Canuck links, btw)... wow. While I disagree with much of what May said (and some of his claims were just plain off, like Cheney wanting to release all the memos relating to the treatment of al Qaeda detainees) and even some of what Stewart said (if there are no prosecutions over this, given all that we already know, it's a massive failure on the part of America) May was at least right when he said that it was by far the best discussion on the topic so far on television.
If some network were to scrub their Rolodex of all the pols and lobbyists, and started inviting on guests actually willing to engage in an honest discussion about a topic rather than simply mouthing the latest Dem or Pub talking points, their ratings would blow through the roof.
Compelling television is people connecting, not talking past each other.
If some network were to scrub their Rolodex of all the pols and lobbyists, and started inviting on guests actually willing to engage in an honest discussion about a topic rather than simply mouthing the latest Dem or Pub talking points, their ratings would blow through the roof.
Compelling television is people connecting, not talking past each other.
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