You're Living in a Cartoon World

Some might wonder what purpose does The Ricky Gervais Show on television serve. Well first it is for those fans of Gervais that have yet discovered the wonders of the internet or just think you must have an iPod to listen to a podcast. Then there are people like me that listen to their podcasts while exercising and looks like a fool enough doing that, adding in laughing out loud randomly would actually make me look worse.

For those unaware of the podcast or the subsequent HBO animated version, Ricky Gervais (who also serves as his own person laugh track )and his The Office and Extras collaborator Stephen Merchant basically just make fun of radio producer Karl Pilkington, his absurdly bizarre theories and perfectly round head. This includes regular features where Merchant reads straight from Karl’s diary and Monkey News where Karl retells a story about monkeys doing amazing (and likely made up like being a winning horse jokey) things that then Ricky taunts Karl for believing.

If you listened to the podcast, the animated series doesn’t add much as it just takes the podcast and put it to quite literal animation with Karl looking like an adult Charlie Brown, Ricky looks like a modern day Fred Flintstone (both of which get mention, the latter mostly because Karl starts to believe The Flintstones was based on historical fact). But it is a find for anyone who missed the podcast or is just a Gervais fanatic. The DVD features all thirteen HBO episodes across two DVD. There isn’t much in the way of special features, there is a bonus Gala animation and you can view one of the episode storyboard.

The second season of The Ricky Gervais Show premieres January 14 at 9:00 on HBO. Below is a synopsis of The Ricky Gervais Show The Complete First Season which you can own it on DVD starting today (1/4):

From the creators of the smash-hit series The Office and Extras and based on the original record-breaking podcasts, comes the new animated comedy series, The Ricky Gervais Show. The series is an animated version of the original podcasts that earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most downloads. It is voiced by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and colleague and friend Karl Pilkington whose offbeat musings inspire many of the storylines which include the merits of 20th century inventions; Karl’s suggestion for population control; how philosophy has evolved through the ages and not forgetting Karl’s perfectly round head!

Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me on behalf of Warner Bros. for the purpose of reviewing the season.

The Truth Is You Can't Go Back so Enjoy it While You Can

Tonight sees the return of Greek for its fourth and final season on ABC Family. For those that are behind or just want to relieve it, Greek Chapter Five (which is the complete third season) is being released next Tuesday for your viewing pleasure. Chapter Four left off with the epic End of the World party which Rusty blew off his studies to attend, Casey poured her heart out to Cappie and even Dale attended.

I will not go into detail reviewing the individual episodes because I have already done so when the they originally aired (click the Greek Tag to get my thoughts) but season three did features some of the shows finest episodes including the Gotcha game (which aired ten months before the other show of higher learning Community’s paintball episode), Song-Fest and its fiery ending, and Father’s Day featuring Dwayne Wayne, Dr. Harold Abbott, Dr. Michael Mancini, and it took me a while to figure out who Papa Cartwright was until I realized he has since gone on to be Playstation 3 spokesmen.

This season even got some fresh blood, most notable Katherine, the Pan Hellenic president who was a thorn in Casey’s side turned confidant. Though it is weird rewatching the season now knowing that the actress playing the uppity task master is actually the accordion player for the hippie enclave Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero. But still doesn’t take away from her great one liners and her being shot with Cupid’s arrow (quite literally) in the Valentine’s Day episode). This was also a breakout season for Laura be it her expletive rants against her Pan Hellenic partners, commandeering the karaoke machine during sober weekend, or her secret torrid love affair (which hopefully get reignited next season). This season also featured cameos from Olivia Munn and an absurdly hot townie and Lea Thomson as Cappie’s mom.

The DVD itself features all twenty episodes from the third season with three of them getting the audio commentary treatment. Season premiere The Day After features executive producers Shawn Piller and Lloyd Segan. The Half Naked Gun gets chatted about by series creator Patrick Shawn Smith, Dilshad Vadsaria (Rebecca), Scott Michael Foster (Cappie), and Johanna Braddy (Jordan). While the season finale All Children… Grow Up is discussed by Smith, Foster, Amber Stevens (Ashleigh), and Aynsley Bubbico (Laura, who oddly enough doesn’t even appear in the episode).

Other extra includes a Gotcha featurette where the cast play their own game on the set, an interview with Nora Kirkpatrick (Katherine), a Hip Hop Music Video (so odd that it may actually be worth the price of admission), and two separate gag reels where you can see just how bad a putter Jake McDorman is.

Greek airs Mondays at 9:00 on ABC Family.



Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me on behalf of Shout Factory for the purpose of reviewing the season.

Not All Conspiracies Are Theories

I am certainly not one of those pretentious critics who thinks AMC programming is the greatest thing to hit television since the invention of color. Don Draper is a douchebag and there is no entertainment value in hearing the dad from Malcolm in the Middle cough a hundred times in a forty-two minute episode. Yet I found their third try at a series (which is always the charm) engrossing.

When the network schedules where unveiled back in May, many thought it would be The Event that would take the torch from the retiring Lost and 24, but it was Rubicon that beat the show to it with a deep conspiracy so detailed you probably should have been taking note.

The concept was benign enough to start (or as benign as a show that started out with two deaths can be) focusing on an analyst tasked to keep tabs on a potential terrorist as he reeks havoc in the eastern hemisphere. Jack Bower Will Travers is not. But if 24 was a shoot ‘em up video game, Rubicon was a thinking man’s chess game of a television show.

Which may have also been the shows biggest weakness in that, where chess players stare at the board for minutes at a time, the show sometimes took way too long to unravel its plot. The two main leads to half the season before even meeting and even then it was a while before they could be considered intertwined.

But when Will starting putting two and two together, Rubicon kicked into high gear with edge of the seat thrills that rivaled any action packed show. Even though it was quite obvious that everything would tie together neatly by the end (there are rarely coincidences in television shows like this) it was fun to watch Will piece everything together and go deeper into paranoia with every layer he pulled back.

If Will was the brains of the show, his co workers were the heart. His trio of underlings could always lighten the tension of the main plot between Miles’ squirreliness, Tanya’s drug addledness (who saw her as a relationship writer?), and punching bag Grant. And who figured Cale as the show’s white hat, if there is a second season we really need to know more of his back story.

In the end, Will found the smoking gun that linked Spangler to the terrorist plot with plenty of twists along the way. I never saw the connection between Tom and David coming, although how does Will not see the DVD in her hand and she collapse. That better show up in a second season. Also didn’t see Will’s neighbor from across the way as one of the good guys, I long suspected her being placed in that apartment by the antagonist and was quite shocked when Katherine came knocking on her door. And we learn (I think) the purpose of the four-leaf clover, it is a message that your time on this Earth is coming to a close.

Which brings us to a potential of a second season. Will Truxton take his own life like previous four-leaf clover owners (his daring of Will to publish his story leads me to believe so)? What was the connection between Tom and David? How does the neighbor fit into all of this? It seems like there is an underground network working against Atlas MacDowell. Is Cale part of the network, and if there is one, how far down does it go? Here’s hoping they get to answer them.

Rubicon gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

It Just Takes Some Time, Litttle Girl You're in the Middle of the Ride

Last fall, Modern Family got a lion share of the attention, and its was much deserved, but there a couple other new sitcoms that debuted that were worth some attention. Community on NBC was a weird zeitgeist of pop culture that weirder and better as the season progressed. Then there was the show that aired right before Modern Family, The Middle which put a modern spin on nineties sitcoms. Here is a synopsis:

Patricia Heaton stars as Frankie Heck in this warm and witty single-camera comedy about raising a family and lowering your expectations. Frankie Heck is a superhero. Well, no, not an actual superhero - but sometimes it seems to Frankie as though getting her kids out the door for school every morning is a superheroic act. Middle aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country, this harried wife and working mother of three uses her wry wit and sense of humor to try to get her family through each day intact.

Own it on DVD which is out today, The Middle may star Patricia Heaton (Everbody Loves Raymond), but the secret weapon on the show is her TV daughter Eden Sher (Weeds) who is an eager beaver who seems to fail at everything from show choir to a tennis ball girl and most hilariously trying to make the no-cut cross country team in the season finally. She even fails at boys too, even the ones she can get, including a witless recurring boyfriend who may have other interests even if he hasn’t realized it yet. All the while she manages to do all the failing with a smile on her face, a braces enhanced smile.

The other main breakout character comes in the form of Neil Flynn (Scrubs) as Heaton’s other half, a man of few words, but the few he does say tend to be brutally true. Even when he tries to more outgoing, his at being socially acceptable conversation ends humorously. Flynn’s dry wit is good for multiple laughs every episode.

The other guys, both named to make them cool, in the family tend to hit or miss and usually more of the latter. The problem with elder Axl (Charlie McDermott, Frozen River), is he is too authentic as the apathetic teen that thinks everything suck and only cares when it comes to sports and girls. He was at his best when he actually managed a girlfriend (Alexa Vega, Sleepover). Then there is the precocious Brick (Atticus Shaffer, Hancock), who for whatever reason routinely repeated everything, whispering to himself. This joke paid off when he entered the Spelling Bee, but otherwise got old quick.

There are a few worth wild bit characters that pop up during the show. Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill’s older brother, you will know him when you see him) is Heaton’s curmudgeoned boss at the car dealership she works at. The family’s aunt’s dog, which has been resigned to a cart and oxygen mask due to years of second hand smoke, always provides a good sight gag whenever he shows up. And what would 2010 be without an appearance from Betty White as a librarian who harasses Brick when he has failed to being back thirty books at the end of the school year.

The DVD spreads the twenty-four first season episodes across three disks, six of which come with deleted scenes, though most of them last less than thirty seconds. But it is nice that they the scenes easily accessed next to the individual episodes on the menu instead of one lump option. The set also comes with three special features, your run of the mill “making of” feature Raising a Sitcom Family that runs around twelve minutes. There is a short feature Sue’s Best Shots where the cast share (verbally) some of their worst picture day shots and there is also a short Gag Reel.

There is plenty of time to catch up on season one of The Middle before the second premieres Wednesday, September 22 at 8:00 on ABC. Check out the official site.



Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me on behalf of Warner Brothers Entertainment for the purpose of reviewing the television show.

He Wasn't Bulletproof and Neither Are Any of You

If there is one theme that shows up more than 9/11 on Rescue Me, it is alcoholism. The disease cost Tommy Gavin his family, caused him to visualize everyone from his dead cousin, to people he was unable to save on the job, even Jesus, and his son, who of course was killed by a drunk driver. The show has kicked up the alcoholic theme for the final season (technically split into two seasons, the first ending tomorrow, so FX could air the final season to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11).

It was thanks to the sauce that we started this season with Tommy heading to the hospital after his uncle shot him, blaming Tommy for the death that died while driving drunk herself off of some booze provided by Tommy. But staying clean and sober never goes well for Tommy and it doesn’t help that upon her twenty-first, his daughter takes up drinking and quickly competes for the title of drunkest Gavin. Dealing with your own addiction is tough, and having witness his daughter’s pushed him over the edge by baptizing her in a pool of liquor. But who am I to judge, it actually worked (for now).

Tommy was not the only one dealing with addiction this season and Lou’s penchant for eating too much has finally caught up to him leading to multiple heart attacks over the course of the season. His doctor tells him that his heart is only working at fifty percent and he only has two options, retire or die (why changing his diet isn’t mention, I do not know). Option B led us to the cliffhanger of the last episode before the season finale where his inability to breathe puts himself, and this time, his crew in danger as the episode goes to black with himself and Damien underneath debris.

One wonders why FX didn’t use that cliffhanger as the season finale; sure the final scene in tomorrow’s finale is shocking, but it doesn’t leaving you wondering what will happen next as much as the pervious episode. As the finale picks up two months after the fire, we do learn the fates of Damien and Lou fairly quickly, one before the title sequence and the other shortly after, one of which should led quite the storylines going into the finale season. We also get satisfying resolution to the fallen cancer patient storyline which results in a humorous discussion between Garrity and Mike on what a Pavilion is. And the guys stoop to an all-time low in picking up women (not to say I didn’t laugh especially when Needles joins in).

So that leads only nine episodes left for Rescue Me to air sometime next year. As long as the show didn’t happen to take place in a purgatory where all the firefighters meet up in after they die or that Tommy actually died on 9/11, it should be satisfying finish to a stellar series.

Rescue Me 6.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

So What Is it Like to Be the Guy who Used to Be Tim Riggins

There is no better line that sums up season four of Friday Night Lights than, “What’s it like to be the guy who used to be Tim Riggins?” All the returning cast members seemed to be shells of their former selves (with the exception of Tami Taylor who looks will be making her downgrade next season). Tim was an all too familiar site in Texas high school football, they guy who peaks in high school and can’t seem to find his way without it.

Along those lines, Matt Saresen also stays in town only to get mocked by the guy who took his spot on the team when delivering pizza. While their former coach gets forced out of his cushy job of a perennial State contender to the other side of the tracks where he can barely field a team. And the only white students that end up in East Dillon just happen to be Landry Clarke and Julie Taylor, but all their friends graduated anyways.

With all the grand sendoffs over the last two seasons; Jason Street moves closer to his kid, Smash Williams gets a scholarship to play football, Tyra Collette emotional acceptance into UT (yet doesn’t even warrant a mention at her absence at Thanksgiving), Matt riding off into the sunset after the death of his father; it is striking how Tim gets his send off, walking into the sheriff’s office to take full responsibility for the chop shop, so his brother can stay on the outside and raise his boy.

Where most shows are not even able to integrate one new character into a show, Friday Night Lights managed to do just that with three new faces in Dillon. Becky Spoles started out as comedic foil with a sharp tongue to jab Tim Riggins at every turn. But the more we learned about her, the mother who isn’t there enough to the dad who isn’t ever there to her scenes with Tami, she brought the emotional weight I just was not expecting at the beginning of the season. Here’s hoping, even with Riggins in prison, she is brought back next season with something to do, and with Tami taking a councilor gig over at East Dillon, it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

On the field, there was Vince Howard, a boy on his last strike, given his last chance at life in exchange for playing football in the newly resurrected Lions. But Vince had a good reason to turn his life to crime, to support his mother who cannot support herself due to her drug habit. It was emotionally wrecking to watch him try to balance his former life of crime, his mother’s struggle with sobriety, being the guy that Coach expects him to be, as well as being the guy that his childhood friend Jess Merriweather can date. That is a lot of weight to put on the shoulders of a high school student and Vince was almost able to pull it all off.

Jess herself seemed to start off as a throwaway character, just an object of Vince and Landry’s affection. But she had her own demons to exercise in the form of her father; a former Lions star that no longer can even watch the game, not even his boys’ peewee games no matter how much Jess tries to persuade him but eventually finds himself rooting for the Lions and his boys with the help of Jess and Coach.

With everyone taken down a notch in the early episodes, redemption was a big theme of the season, most notably that of Coach Taylor. Just two seasons removed from winning a state champion, Taylor is pushed out by a wealthy booster and resigned to take the job at the newly opened East Dillon because the last time he took a job away from his family didn’t work out very well. The transition took him from coaching future college players to former convicts and the road was a bumpy one.

Just yelling “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts…” was not going to work and it took a couple weeks for Coach to realize this. But slowly he won people over, from couple coaches, to Buddy Garrity (who hilariously got the Lions games broadcasted on a Spanish language radio station) to finally the players themselves as coach himself learned that he could not put these players into his system, but to create a new system around them, managing to win a couple games, and the big win against West Dillon (with the Dillon mayor on the Panther’s sideline) with what may have been the first ever game winning field goal in the history of Hollywood created football games. But Landry needed some redemption of his own.

Friday Night Lights gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Friday Night Lights on iTunes.

You Make Me Pull, I'll Put You Down

There may not have been a cooler beginning of a television show than having the protagonist walk up to a bad guy twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes after telling said bad guy he had twenty-four hours to leave town or he would shoot him. Unfortunately for Raylan Givens of Justified, the shooting got him transferred from sunny Miami to the one place he didn’t want to: home. He spent his whole life distancing himself from his father and even when back in Kentucky stayed away from him until of course he got in trouble with the law. It didn’t help that his ex-wife moved back to the area with her shifty new husband.

Now there is a premise that Seth Bullock could get behind and thankfully Timothy Olyphant doesn’t seem to care about typecasting as Givens might as well be the great grandson of his previous Deadwood character. We even get a couple of Deadwood reunions in the first season of Justified most notably with Bullock trading wits one more time with Dan Dougherty who played an escaped convicted holding hostages in Bullock’s office.

Aside from former Deadwood cohorts, there was plenty of other great casting choices including Stephan Root as a judge who wears little under hid robe but a gun. Alan Ruck as an informant turned on the run dentist. And then there was MC Gainey as the local kingpin, father of the guy Raylan shot upon return to Harlan, and former father-in-law to the girl Raylan bedded upon returning home.

Aside from the casting, another strong point for the show was the case of the week that never sank into the same rut of “ripped from the headlines” of other procedurals. Some of which featured criminals of the week so stupid that some even tried to out draw Raylan even knowing of what happened in Miami.

But it was the overarching storyline of Raylan and the one person that survived his bullet, Boyd Crowder. After coming out of surgery saying he was a changed man, Boyd still straddled the line of morality the rest of the season using whatever means necessarily to get everyone on the right path. Even if that means blowing up a truck full of meth supplies meant for his father (and not so coincidentally shipped by an associate of the man Raylan shot in Miami and unsuccessfully tried to have him killed twice already this season).

Raylan may have 99 Problems, at least two of them are female thanks to Ava seeing his ex leave his room last week. Everything comes to ahead tonight when the first season comes to a close. The Givens and the Crowders have been crossing each other paths all season and with Bo’s shipment getting blown up by Boyd and Raylan wanting Arlo to wear a wire to bring the Crowder clan down, there are plenty of double crossings going down tonight.

Justified 1.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Whatever Happened Happened

If Blogger allowed subtitles, it would be, “Unless of course it was all a dream then that didn’t really happen.”

Please, if you will, jump into the Hot Tube Time Machine all the way back to February 10, 2005, a mere week into the inception of the 9th Green and my very first mention of Lost here, Déjà Vu All Over Again. In the post I mention my first apprehension to the show going in the long run because it had just already in the first season utilized the second of the biggest clichés in television history when we learned that Claire had come down with a bout of amnesia. But I bring this up because of the first overused cliché they used, the “it was all a dream” sequence when Boone saw Smoke kill his sister until Locke said, “Psyche! It was all a dream Boone, she is still alive.”

There is always a lot of talk about if a series finale could tarnish a show and the answer is no. The Seinfeld was considered bad but is still regarded as one of the funniest shows in the history of television. The Sopranos ending created such visceral hatred but I still saw it on plenty of Greatest of the 00’s lists and even topped a few. These were like seeing Joe Montana in a Chief’s uniform, sure you do not want to see it, but it doesn’t disqualify him from the Hall of Fame.

While the series finale may not tarnish the show as a whole, it completely ruined the last season. As one of the few people that actually like the flash-sideways, to go back and realize that forty percent of the season happened in the dead minds of the castaways so they could have the lamest high school reunion ever really ruined that part of the season I had previously liked so much. And what was with everyone with a drinking the kool-aid look to everyone sported after they flashed. They were all way too happy to realize they were dead.

And who was and wasn’t invited was befuddling. Sure they could explain away Michael as being stuck Jacob Marley style with whispering chains (along, plausibly, with Eko, Nikki, Paulo and a few others) but what about Walt? Could have had some flashes at some time with Vincent? And who invited Ben? Did he really redeem himself that much as Hurley’s number two? And what happens to him outside the church? Couldn’t he have gone with Alex and or Rousseau? Speaking of children, where were Aaron, baby Charlie, Ji Yeon, and the spawn of Sawyer? Shouldn’t have Richard warranted an invite? Sure if the island was underwater, he never gets eternal life from Jacob, but if sideways was just make believe anyway, he could have made an appearance.

And the absence of Faraday and Charlotte could be explained away by Desmond respecting the request of Eloise Hawking, but as the “time cop” shouldn’t she know if a world created by a group that leaves, would that world cease to exist and she then was denying her son a chance to pass on? And why care enough to include Miles, Artz and Anna Lucia in you sideways world but not even invite them to your reunion? Sure they did not have some epic love story, but neither did Locke or Boone (did I miss a scene when Boone had his flash backs?). Neither did Sayid and Shannon for that matter. Seriously, Sayid pines over Nadia, cris-crossing continents trying to find her, watches her die, but his true love is a chick he dated for a week.

The big irony for me when it comes to Lost is when ABC shipped Monday Night Football I said there was nothing left on the All Broads Channel for guys to watch except for Lost. It wasn’t until the finale did I realize that Lost in fact fit right in with all the other televised chick flicks on the network. Lost was never a genre show, the sci-fi aspect of the show was no less a gimmick than a hospital or the suburbs. This is why we would never get some important answers to questions like: "Why was Sun the only living member of Oceanic 6 that didn’t flash back to 1977?" because it never matter. If you need and answer, it was just a way for the writers to keep Jin and Sun away from each other for another two seasons because it would make for a more emotional reunion and subsequent farewell.

The finale was for all the people who would annoyingly mash up character names and fights to the death arguing over if Kate should pick Jack or Sawyer and cried when Penny called Desmond on the freighter for the first time. Sure I enjoys the first couple flashes in the finale (to a point, they really went overboard with all of them) but that just isn’t me, I could have cared less who Kate picked as long as the writers found new ways to get her out of her clothes and didn’t well up during the phone call because I was still trying to figure out how present day Desmond was able to get nineties Penny to call him. It is probably not a coincidence that some of my favorite characters on the show, Ben, Locke, Hugo, Faraday, Miles, rarely got any sweet lovin’ if any.

A secondary irony is for the whole series all I ever heard about the show was, “I have no clue what is going on but I love it.” Well I almost always new was going on (I could never wrap my head around the idea of the Constant) I never thought the show was all that great since the second season. But in the end it may not have been a good idea to trust someone behind Crossing Jordan and Nash Bridges.

Lost: The Series gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Scooter's Fall 2010 Television Schedule

It seems like I say this every year, but I cannot said I am that excited with any of the new shows the networks have to offer this year. Of course looking back to last year, Modern Family and Community delivered some decent laughs (especially the former) and Parenthood lived up to its pedigree. Though you may have to look to cable to find the best new show of the last year, Justified. Here the shows recently announced that I am most looking forward to (granted most are slated for midseason which tends not to be a good sign for longevity).

1. No Ordinary Hero (Tuesdays at 8:00) – You would think the Heroes debacle would keep me away from a show that already featured a guy who ruined The Thing, but it does come from the guy who gave us Everwood and Eli Stone.

2. (Tie) Mr. Sunshine and Next (both midseason): Both star comedy gold of decades past, Matthew Perry as a sports arena manager and Paul Reiser apparently playing himself. But I have a bone to pick with the promo going around where he says he only gets noticed as the dude from Mad About You, c’mon, I will always remember his as the neurotic half of My Two Dads (and if we are remaking every eighties television show, how about that one, or will no one get by the easy DNA issues at the heart of the show?).

3. Better Together (Wednesdays at 8:30) – Time for an admission, I actually enjoyed Committed which I think lasted a month on NBC a couple years back where Jennifer Finnigan and Josh Cooke played mentally unstable potential companions with Tom Poston living in the closet. Now the duo is back (sans Poston in a closet) for another comedy round. It may last just as long, but I’ll be watching.

4. Outsourced (Thursdays at 9:30): If done right, this will hopefully be the feel good racist comedy of the year.

5. (tie) Perfect Couples and Friends with Benefits (both midseason) – Sure they look like your typical situation comedies, but one has Olivia Munn and the other has Dick Casablancas (albeit with very WASPy hair).

Here is a full rundown of the shows I plan to be watching next fall with CBS really testing my limits with all its changes (I hate change so much I refused to vote for Barack Obama because of it, not that I would boycott my first Russell-free Survivor in a year because of it).

Mondays
8:00 – Chuck
8:00 – How I Met Your Mother
9:00 – The Event (Maybe, depends how much Lost leaves a bad taste in my mouth)
10:00 – Castle

Tuesdays
8:00 – No Ordinary Hero
10:00 - Parenthood

Wednesdays
8:00 – Survivor
8:30 - Better Together
9:00 – Modern Family

Thursdays
8:00 – The Big Bang Theory
8:00 - Community
9:30 – Outsourced

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

I got nothing.

King Arthur’s Journey Has Ended

I hate Russell Hantz. Not in a love to hate kind of way like some of his Villains brethren, but I hate him to the point that I wish he had never been cast on Survivor. After dominating the screen time last season by sabotaging his own tribe last season, he was back for another go around and weaseled his way to the end yet again thanks mostly for being on the receiving end of two of the top four dumbest moves ever in the history of Survivor (and this does not even incude the dumb move Amanda made by giving the Idol hint back to Danielle). Tyson changing his vote for no apparent reason, which would have sent Russell packing, instead Tyson gets his torch snuffed out. Then J.T. for some bizarre reason gives his Immunity Idol to Russell for no logical reason and promptly gets voted out at the hands of his own Idol. Keep in mind that J.T. didn’t make the dumbest move in Survivor history, Erick deserved that (dis)honor.

And Russell is wrong when he says there is a flaw in Survivor. No, Russell, you are the flaw and deserve the title as dumbest player in Survivor history because you are too dumb to understand the rules as they are presented to you. Just because you can bully your tribe mates to get yourself way to the final vote doesn’t mean you can bully Jeff Probst into changing the rule. There is a reason Big Brother quickly changed its rule after one season from America voting to the housemates, people vote are among our dumbest America has to offer (look at how some of our political elections have gone for the last couple decades). Russell put up two of the most pathetic final tribal councils and walked out of them with a paltry two votes in total.

Besides that, Heroes vs. Villains was surprisingly entertaining after the big dud of the first All-Stars season (with Fans vs. Favorites being not that much better). That was thanks to the players this time around actually acting strategically, not just spitefully voting out all the winners the first time they got. In fact this time around three of the four previous winners here made it to at least the jury with two at the final tribal.

And if Russell put himself in the discussion of the dumbest player in Survivor history, Sandra should be discussed as one of the best ever (and I didn’t even have her in my top twenty-five Greatest Survivor Contestants Ever list that I published right before the season). In her two wins, she has received twelve of the sixteen total votes cast at her final tribal councils. And Parvati shouldn’t be too far behind because she was the clear mastermind behind her and Russell’s alliance and still played in a way they managed her a few votes on the jury.

As Survivor has wrapped up the most recent All-Star season, I have a suggestion for their next one: Winners vs. Losers. You can take this idea a couple different ways, if you can get 8-10 (depending on how big they want the cast to be) former winners to take another go at it, have two tribes with the other being the greatest players to have never actually won (like your Rob’s Boston and Cesternino) or go big with the losers tribe and have everyone be someone that was voted out first (or second) their season. Or if you can only get around five winners, go four tribes: Winners, People who lost the final Tribal, a tribe of people who made it as far as the jury, and finally a rejects tribe of people who never saw a merge their season. No matter which way you choose, just do not bring back Russell.

Survivor: Heroes vs Villains gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Take My Message to Your Brother and Tell Him Twice

Just as Michael Jackson was getting ready for his This Is It concerts in London, his brothers were also contemplating their own comeback with a fortieth anniversary concert and just like Michael was documenting his preparation for the event, the brothers decided to film as they decide to put on a concert or not. The result ended up on Bravo as a six episode documentary show for A&E as The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty.

With filming starting just before the death of their brother, naturally grieving became a big focus when the announcement of Michael’s death comes at the end of the first episode. The entire episode, entitled Aftermath, is devoted to the brothers dealing with their brother’s death. And ever episode after that doesn’t go with some mention or reference to Michael.

The best thing going for The Jacksons A Family Dynasty is also its biggest drawback in that there are no contrived situations that plague other documentary style reality shows that question the definition of “reality,” the closest thing to a contrived segment is when a couple brothers go back to the city of Gary Indiana to visit their old stomping ground. But even that was engaging to see the house where the seven children grew up in. But on the other side of the coin, without any of the set pieces, we spend a good chunk of the series watching the boys debate on whether they should put on an anniversary concert or not.

The show is also striking on who was not involved. Yeah we get glimpses of all the Jacksons during the Michael memorial, but besides that, there are just mentions of Rebbie and Randy, we get Janet via a speakerphone chat with her brothers. Joe’s presence if felt throughout the show, but we never see him outside the memorial. And sorry LaToya, you are cut out altogether.

But Randy’s absence was the biggest head scratcher because even the show was stylized “The Jack5ons” there were only four Jacksons featured on the show. Michael was obviously busy when they started planning the reunion, buy where was Randy (and no he wasn’t hosting American Karaoke, they are two different Randy Jacksons) who replaced Jermaine who stayed with Motown (he was married to the boss’ daughter) and The Jackson 5 left the label, how was he not included in this or at least explained why he was not included?

But plenty of Jacksons the next generation, many of which are in the music business but have had as much successes as the other Jackson brothers not named Michael. The stand out of the next generation is Siggy the neck tattooed, mohawked, rapper wannabe son of Jackie (but you wouldn’t be surpised if he turned out to be the spawn of Bobby Brown even if Brown hadn’t gone through puberty by the time Siggy was born) who appears in half of the episode.

The show is basically for fanatics, but keep in mind for anyone that watched the series when it was on A&E, he DVD features just the six episodes that span around four and a half hours, no audio commentaries, no deleted scenes or any type of extras.



Full Disclosure Notice: This DVD was given to me on behalf of A&E Home Entertainment for the sole purpose of reviewing the series.

I Plan on Making it as Miserable as Possible

This season of Survivor came down to the age old battle of Good vs. Evil. On one hand you had Russell Hantz who more than lived up to the title of the biggest villain in Survivor history. On the other was Natalie White, the sweet Christian from the south who epitomized the Southern Bell. (Oh yeah, and there was Mick Trimming, possibly the most boring finalist ever in the show’s history and reason to go back to a two personal final.) My faith in humanity was restored when the Jury did not reward Russell’s evil behavior instead giving the million dollars to Natalie. Of course that faith in humanity was lost when America as a whole voted Russell the Player of the Season.

But the season belong to Russell who for some reason thought wearing his evilness on his sleeve would endear him to a jury of his peers which should go down as one of the worst strategies ever. If there were a runner up to Russell is was the mullet rocking former marine Shannon Waters who just goes by the moniker Shambo. She was the typical outsider (she was blindsided by half the votes because no one decided to tell her the plan) who lucked into a dominate team that didn’t lose to give them a chance to vote her out and Shambo then turned out to be the Galu downfall.

It is apropos that since the final vote came down to a battle between good and evil (and Mick) that for its twentieth season, Survivor is heading back to the South Pacific for a season called Heroes vs. Villains (yeah, the Real Road/Road Rules Challenge already did this three years ago). No word on what former players will be returning (except Richard Hatch won’t since he wasn’t allowed to leave Rhode Island) but I know which side I will be rooting for.

And Natalie over Russell managed not to be the biggest upset yesterday as CBS announced that Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains won’t get the coveted post-Super Bowl slot like the previous All Star edition and the second season (or even The Big Bang Theory, but something called Undercover Boss which sounds just slightly less lame than Kid Nation. Instead look for the new season of Survivor February 11.

Survivor: Samoa gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

For some reason, network television still hasn’t figured out if you actually put quality television on during the summer, people may tune in. Instead during the summer months we get crappy reality show and scripted shows that the network figure no one would watch during the fall. So that left me only three shows to watch this summer, Rescue Me, Leverage and The Philanthropist while occasionally catching Raising the Bar, Royal Pains and Defying Gravity at my leisure. I am in no way complaining about the lack of television because it gave me to time to catch up on these shows via DVD:

Alias (Season 5): If my memory serves me correctly, the last season of Alias was moved to Thursday pitting it against Survivor, My Name Is Earl and Smallville and something had to give. The show always had some serious writing flaws, but Rachel Nichols was a great addition and Amy Acker surprisingly made for a good bad girl. Alias ranked in at #62 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.

Dead Like Me (The Complete Series): Thoroughly enjoyable series but Brian Fuller certainly perfected the jaded twenty-something with Wonderfalls. And the Desmond Hume staring movie wasn’t as bad as the fanatic would have you believe once you get beyond the fact that they ruined Daisy Adair with poor recasting. And the writing certainly did help things either. I wouldn’t be against more. Dead Like Me ranked in at #17 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.

Deadwood (The Complete Series): You really cannot boil down a series like Deadwood down to one paragraph but let me try to do so in one word: (expletive deleted). Nothing funnier on television possibly ever than when Al and Wu would try to communicate when he only knew three words, Sweargen, San Francisco and (expletive deleted). Good times. On the flip side, it was extremely weird to see Veronica Mars seduce Matt Saracen’s mom. Deadwood ranked in at #13 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.

The Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Seasons 1 and 2): A show where Billie Piper plays a hooker? Yes please. The Secret Diary of a Call Girl ranked in at #92 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.

Weeds (Seasons 3 and 4): One major problem with watching shows on delay is that you inevitably get spoilers and knowing that Agrestic burning down and Nancy ending up pregnant is included at that. Weeds ranked in at #90 on The Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s.


And since networks have been nice enough not to put anything on worth watching on Tuesday this fall I may be able to check up on some more television in the next few months. I recently won Mad Man season 1 and hopefully that lives up to the hype. And I will be checking out Dexter season 3 as soon as I can steal it from my sister after she buys it.

With My Teeth Locked Down I Can See the Blood

When a show has a bad season you have to wonder if it just an outlier or signs of what’s to come. The fourth season of Rescue Me just came completely off the rails with silly plots about baby stealing and Tommy being forced to date the chief’s daughter. But if there was one show that benefited from the writer’s strike more than any it would be Rescue Me which had a twenty month layoff between seasons. This apparently gave the writers enough time to get the train back on the track (for the most part) for the fifth season.

Part of the resurgence was song crafty casting that saw Alex P. Keaton turn into a hard drinking, wheel-chair bound tool that somehow landed Janet between the seasons. While an aloof Maura Tierney kept everyone, including the audience, guessing for the last couple episodes. And let us not forget the Garrity family who came to help Sean out during his cancer treatment, that caused the highlight of the season with Garrity musical numbers. By the end I was hoping that his big brother would stick in New York to keep tabs on Sean.

The big theme of the season was relapse. Shortly after getting his one year chip from Alcoholics Anonymous, Tommy found himself back at the sight of the former twin towers talking about his cousin who he hasn’t for that time, getting him back on the wagon. If only he knew this would be his downfall. And finding out his cousin had slept with his wife was the least of his worries from going back to the bottle.

Tommy’s reunion with the alcohol started a chain reaction that eventually contributed to the death of his Aunt. And despite Uncle Teddy only being married to her for a year or two, wanted to get away from her after he got out of prison, and let her get into a car drunk even though he was in prison for killing a drunk driving, he still blamed Tommy for getting almost the entire extended Gavin family back on the sauce. And so Teddy shot Tommy. Twice. In front of everyone at the bar. Leaving him to die a slow death as the season end leaving open what should be an interesting final season.

Rescue Me 5.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. Rescue Me came in at #11 on The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the ‘00s.

And in Terms of a Plan? We Fight

Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer before it, I was late getting into Angel. And much like I caught up to Buffy thanks to FX running two episodes a day, I got my daily dose of Angel on TNT going through whole seasons in less than a month before catching up with the new airings on the network. Angel started out as just an extension of Buffy, not really noteworthy in itself the first couple season, but finally came into its own and truly because better with each passing seasons and that is why it is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.

Please note this isn’t a post to try to capitalize on the annoying impotent vampire craze that is going on now (in fact it just shamelessly ties into a much bigger post being released this coming Tuesday, so be sure to come back then), because let’s face it; the title character was the least interesting on the show. The show was slow to start when it was just Angel, Cordelia and Doyle. But it finally hit its stride when Angel moved into the abandoned hotel and recruited what would end up being his core group by the end of the second season when Fred join Gunn, Wesley, Lorne in the cast.

And as good as that core group was in the beginning, the show went into overdrive in its fifth and final season. This is when Angel Investigations arch-nemesis Wolfram and Hart decided to give them the keys to their LA office for Angel to run and his buddies to get their own niche in the company. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the season was the first in which creator Joss Whedon only had one show on the year and just came of a season that saw Buffy end and Firefly prematurely canceled.

The last season also saw the inclusion of comic relief courtesy of Harmony, a former classmate of Cordelia turned vampire as Angel’s receptionist at Wolfram and Hart. Not that the show needed more comic relief because even though Angel was routinely considered darker than Buffy, Buffy never had an episode as whimsical as when Angel got tuned into a puppet. And as tentative as I was as first as Spike joining the cast, it ending up a good thing if only for the astronaut vs. caveman debate. Not the mention the final season also saw a post-Firefly, pre-Chuck Adam Baldwin as the liaison to the Senior Partners.

But of course just when the show turned on its after burns in terms of creativity, the show got canceled. Yet somehow, the series finale with the gang opening up the gates of hell as repercussions of assassinate the Circle of the Black Crown was a satisfying ending in its ambiguity, and frustrating at the same time.

Thou Shalt Aspire to Be Charming

It is odd how some unwatchable shows can have spinoffs that are actually enjoyable. Take maybe the most morally corrupt television show ever Extreme Make Over which spawned one of the heartwarming Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to give deserving people better cribs. Then there are the almost as morally corrupt … of Love shows on VH1 where twenty strippers and porn stars vie for the affection of washed up celebrities whose back accounts are probably receding faster than their hairlines.

Yet the … of Love shows take the rejects and put the biggest head cases and nobly (at times) tried to turn them in proper woman on the Charm School series. Sure the shows are completely staged with headmistress (Ricki Lake going where Sharon Osbourne and Mo’nique have gone before) changing criteria from week to week. Usually there is one person that benefits from this more than others with the award this season going to Ashley who stuck around to the finals despite constantly berating her competition even calling someone a retard multiple which was in itself expulsionworthy.

On the receiving end of that of most of Ashley’s slurs was the unofficial star of the season, Bubbles who never failed to put in her two cents usually to the dismay of her classmates, epically Ashley. The other stand out of the season was the drunken mess that was Marcia and her broken English who swore off alcohol half way through and to her credit didn’t take another sip for the rest of her tenure on the show and that includes a stint the show that was filmed in New Orleans.

In the end Risky took home the mantel of most changed girl even though it took her until the last episode to open up. But after hearing what she said, you can understand why she wouldn’t want to share the information to a national audience. Like the previous seasons, this one got less entertaining as the season went along, but that is not to say I won’t be turning in for the inevitable Charm School featuring the For the Love of Ray-J rejects.

Charm School with Ricki Lake gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

You can download the full season of Charm School with Ricki Lake on iTunes or on Amazon Video on Demand (see below):

Who Is This Jackass?

For better or worse, Survivor: Tocantins belonged to Benjamin “Coach” Wade. Not since Johnny Fairplay has a contestant this annoying had last this long, two tribal councils away from landing in the finals. So every episode this season we got a heavy dose of words of wisdoms and honor that proved to be hypocritical like how he wanted to compete against the strongest but was quick to vote out Brandon right after the merge or how he played the game truthfully but lied straight face about trying to realign with Sierra after his Warrior Alliance failed.

Coach selling out Brandon (who in turned tried to blindside Coach at the same tribal council) set up the most improbably power triad in Survivor history in Stephen Fishbach, James “J.T.” Thomas, and Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George (SWV member and wife of Eddie) who went into the merge outnumbered by six to three (after Joe Dowdle had to drop up due to medical reasons) and preceded to orchestrate five straight Timbira eliminations to land themselves into the final four. Keep in mind I am not one of those instant historian that likes to throw hyperboles around, but that was the biggest upset in Survivor history. They became so confident they didn’t even bother to play their hidden immunity idol.

Then came the biggest shock in a jury full of blindsides in that J.T. and Stephen turned on Taj to keep around Erinn Lobdell (who is one of the rare chick who looked better after a shower then a month without one for some reason) which was one of many questionable moves the duo made this season. But in the end, they were the last two standing, so what do I know? Well I did know that J.T. would win as I predicted as such during my First Impressions of Survivor: Tocantins. So there’s that.

Next up is Survivor: Samoa, which from a visual standpoint should be good because the South Pacific tend to be the most beautiful destinations. And if I could make one suggestion: it is time for Jeff Probst to stop asking if the immunity winner wants to give it away because, to the best of my knowledge, it has only happened once and that was in the bizarre All-Star season. Even the most secure immunity holders have passed it on so stop wasting time in asking and do away with it.

Survivor: Tocantins gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.