31 posts tagged “television”

Sadly, Jericho was canceled after its short-lived, fan-inspired resurrection of a 7-episode 2nd season. At least it allowed them to more or less wrap the show up and give it a fucking awesome send-off.

Moonlight was another one of those shows that were just terrible, yet I couldn't stop watching it. Mediocre writing, downright bad acting (Shannyn Sossamon making the bared vamp-teeth at a monkey will always be remembered), giggle-inducing vamp effects; it was like a little cookie of wonderful badness that sat atop Friday night like a cherry on top of a sundae. (Wow, mixed metaphors much?) So of course, it also got the hatchet. Sadface!

It's biggest fault was its obvious rip-off of homage to Angel: Not only the whole "Vampire with a soul solving crimes" (Although in the Moonlight-verse, vamps didn't lack souls. It was more like the Blade version of vampirism. The vamps were like humans: sometimes good and sometimes amoral jerks.) root story, but they even borrowed the "Vamp's crazy lover/sire, who he thought was dead, returns as a human" plotline. It was pretty blatant. I suppose if it had lasted another season, Shannyn Sossamon would have given birth to a son who eventually got sucked into a hell dimension. And there would have been a demon who could see your future when you did karaoke.

Speaking of Angel, my main bad teevee indulgence is now going to have to be Bones. I watched the pilot back when it started, snorted in disgust.... and several months later went back to it. Something about it sucked me in. And it's not all bad, it's got a pretty good cast and fairly decent writing; although they've kind of veered wildly off-character this season. Mostly I just like anyone with the last name "Deschanel" and David Boreanaz, who isn't my generation's James Dean or anything, but cute and seems to know what he's good at and sticks to it.

Check out this screencap from the season finale. Can you think of any non-verbal cue that would give you insight into a character more than this?

Why are you wearing a hat that dispenses beer?

He's taking a bath while wearing a beerhat, smoking a cigar, and reading a Green Lantern comic book. He was also listening to like, Cheap Trick or some similar band. Awesome.

...nah, probably not.

Rich from FourFour has done the world the incomparable service of watching the entire terrible Anna Nicole Smith basic-cable biopic and distilling it into one 7-minute capsule of awesomeness. Watch out for Karl Fucking Malden playing her ancient billionare husband.

If I ever watch this whole movie, it will only be to take part in a drinking game in which you do a shot every time someone says "titties", "Marilyn Monroe", or "TrimSpa".

Oh, Tina Fey. No.

My friend, SNL writer Seth Meyers, coined the term clapter, which is when you do a political joke and people go, "Woo-hoo." It means they sort of approve but didn't really like it that much. You hear a lot of that on [whispers] The Daily Show.

That's because TDS isn't comedy, like 30 Rock. It's satire, which is defined as "the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc." Satire aims not just to amuse, but to anger. The audience's reaction is almost never going to unfettered glee, because it's always going to be tempered with rage at how fucked up our country is.

That being said, I laugh more during one half-hour episode of TDS than I do for a month's worth of 90-minute SNL episodes.

Also, Seth Meyers is as funny as a punch in the teeth.

I swear this is the last thing I'll write about Dexter... at least until I see the 2nd season/read the 2nd book.

Female orgasms are tearing this country apart: How CBS is keeping America safe from Dexter.

Are you excited for tonight's return of Lost? Too bad there's only 8 episodes in the can. Stupid writer's strike. (Note: I fully support the WGA, while reserving the right to be disgruntled that their strike is causing televisis interruptus.)

I kind of soured on the show during season 3, because I started to suspect the show's creators had no intention of ever answering the majority of the mysteries that had been raised. But a couple of weeks ago I came across this post on BoingBoing: J.J. Abrams TED talk: "Mystery in a box".

Mystery box

Abrams started his talk by showing a wrapped box he's owned for decades. It's a "mystery package" he bought from Lou Tannen's Magic store in New York. It has a big question mark on it. He's never opened the box and never will open it because he says the mystery of what's inside the box is more interesting than anything that might be in the box. "It represents infinite possibility; it represents hope; it represents potential... mystery is the catalyst for imagination... maybe there are times where mystery is more important than knowledge."

So no, we're probably never going to find out what that 4-toed statue leg was about, or why Libby was in the same mental institution as Hurley, or if Walt can command birds and control the weather and stuff. And you know what? I don't care. My brother says "Even if we never get any answers, I'll still have enjoyed the ride". I would agree with that, with the added statement that the show's abundant man candy makes up for a lot of unanswered questions. Hell, most of The Prisoner doesn't make a damn bit of sense to me (especially that freaked-out final episode), but I still want the DVD set.

So if you're only watching the show because you expect everything to eventually be tied up into a neat little bow, you should probably bail out now.

X-files 2

More!

I keep hearing snarky comments to the effect of "Why now?". Why not? There are plenty of people interested in another X-Files movie, believe me. It ain't going to lose money.

Interestingly, the news is that the movie is is not going to involve the alien conspiracy mytharc, and possibly won't have aliens at all, but will instead be more like one of the "Monster of the Week" episodes. This is good news to me, I always enjoyed the MofW eps the most. The mytharc was kind of boring and totally baffling; even after watching the old episodes over and over again in sydication I still don't really understand it.

In semi-related fangirl news, I found a recipe for Lost fish biscuits!

I'm feeling rather fond of David Lynch at the moment, having received the Definitive Gold Box Edition of Twin Peaks for Christmas from my favorite aunt and her boyfriend. My brother recently asked me if I thought Lynch was on drugs, and honestly, I don't. I just think he's fucking insane.

Upon viewing several episodes back-to-back, it holds together rather more cohesively than I'd remembered. I've made it to the episode where Leland Palmer/BOB dies, and I suspect that's what made the show go off the rails: they built it around a single, monolithic question--Who killed Laura Palmer?--and it didn't really have anywhere to go after that.

I view the series as a maze; like any good maze, there are going to be blind alleys and dead ends and shit that just never makes sense. Plus, it's David Lynch. Come on, y'all. Mysterious giants and messages from deep space and talking logs are par for the course.

I still hate most of his movies, though. Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart are great, but the rest you can flush.

Next time I update, I'll be in Louisiana!

I leave you with this:

...dear lord, I miss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.