With all the new shows that needed to be reviewed, I really haven’t had the time to review a summer show that just ended. The first season of Rescue Me
was so entertaining that it won the inaugural STA for Best Cable Show for its first season. That season we were introduced to the gang that included the ultimate alpha-male Tommy, the chief Jerry, the old dude Kenny, the new guy Probie, the ladies man Franco, and the idiot Garrity. The season ended with Franco condition unknown after getting hurt due to Tommy’s mistake with Tommy adding anger to his guilt when his wife took off with their kids.
As the second season starts, Tommy asks for a transfer and is ship off to the suburbs where nothing happens, Franco recovered but picked up a painkiller habit, and Tommy’s kids were nowhere to be found. But each episode is started with the heart pounding C’mon, C’mon. Other main storylines that were introduced was Kenny now was living at the firehouse after getting a divorce, and the chief having to care for his wife who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.
Tommy does still drive the show. In an attempt to look like a better father in hopes to win custody of his kids once he finds them, he decides to sober up. This eliminates the ghost he continually would see last season. Grant the side effect of being sober was that he now kept on seeing Jesus and on occasion Mary Magdalene who, at least in the entertainment department, was more entertaining than the many ghosts that haunted the alcoholic Tommy.
There were a few storylines this year that I could have done without, most notably the one with Tommy’s half-brother priest. But as a whole the second season was just as entertaining as the first. The most entertaining is whenever Garrety walk on the screen and show some great comic chops, from helping Probie to determine whether he had ball cancer to debating the existence of God with Tommy’s youngest daughter, Garrety always brings his A game. And with everything that happened at the end of this season, it looks like season three is shaping up to be as good as the previous two.
Rescue Me 2.x gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Severe [RED]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidjcsCV5I3jWQDVTcnVoXbArSx3kHl02FZ8FkOHBBKP2w8mQulcCF614SIw1GjuB2JtKV2YcQOKXtMlnW2ulLSOvYvvXzDwZ3JF4Mlh0Dt2nfEL1oGLh0sk7O-GRHWbCPvJmMMKg/s400/small_severe.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
As we begin the fall season and a march to Halloween, and the commercials for haunted houses start to air, what better induction to the Scooter Hall of Fame than the best movie of all time that deals with the other worldly, Ghostbusters. I loved the movie as a child and even watched the cartoon that somehow turned Slimer into a good guy. Looking back, it ruins the continuity, but luckily as a little kid I didn’t care. I even enjoyed the widely panned sequel, yeah it wasn’t as good as the original, but it is still funnier than much of what Hollywood releases today. Not to mention the numerous memorabilia such as bed sheets, lunch box, and action figures.
The movie also introduced me to the comic geniuses that are Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis. Keep in mind that Saturday Night Live, Caddyshack and previous movies they were in were before my time or were in movies that my parents wouldn’t let me see at the time. Murray plays Dr. Peter Venkman, the reluctant leader of the group who would rather pick up some hot chick than further his science career. Aykroyd is Dr. Raymond Stantz, the naive one of the group who enjoys his work a little too much. And Ramis, the perennial straightman, plays Dr. Egon Spengler. All of them hit each joke perfectly.
In addition to the main cast, the supporters are just as perfect. First is the scene stealer, Rick Moranis as an accountant turned Keymaster. Sigourney Weaver, who did look good back then but the frizzy hair hasn’t aged well, is Venkman’s love interest turned Gatekeeper. Then there are Annie Potts as the token New Yorker secretary and Ernie Hudson, the only ghostbuster without a Dr. in his name that keeps the group grounded and keeps thing in perspective from a regular guy’s point of view.
The movie itself maybe not be as quote worthy as other 80’s classics and some of the CG has not stood the test of time (where George Lucas when you need him) but the movie as a whole is still worth watching especially with Halloween coming up. So fire up the DVD and let the Ray Parker Jr. blare (which I don’t think sounds anything like Huey Lewis’ I Want a New Drug). And don’t forget to roast some Staypuft Marshmallows over the fire.
Okay, so I sort of cheated on the title because I had no desire to count up how many seasons but two shows I’ve watch faithfully from their fruitions started back up yesterday. Granted I watched neither of them live rather I trusted the good ‘ol VCR to help me out.
Smallville
I was really unhappy when I heard that the show was moving opposite of Survivor and my most anticipated new show Everybody Hates Chris. But I grew up on the Christopher Reeves Superman and have affection for the franchise even though I’m not much of a comic book geek. Plus I still believe Lana Lang is the hottest chick on television today so I have no reason to stop watching unlike another anemic show that moved into the same timeslot on Another Broadcast Channel (and I capitalized the letters for a reason).
We left Smallville (see my review - I'm More Than a Man in a Silly Red Cape) last season after yet another meteor shower hit the town which left Mama and Papa Kent in mortal danger (yet again), Lana climbing out of a crashed helicopter and looking into a crater left by a meteor (or so I thought), Lex and Chloe in the caves that just transported Clark into the artic. So in the premier last night we learn that the Kent’s made it out all right, no surprise there. Also Clark, while stuck in the artic, witnessed the construction of his Fortress of Solitude as I predicted he would find at the end of last season. But the big surprise was that Chloe also made the trip there. Also the crater that Lana climbed up was not made by a meteor but by a spaceship much like Clark’s.
Out of the spaceship came to Kryptonians very reminiscent of the baddies from Superman 2 on a search for Kal-El. I was really sad to see Clark dispatch the baddies so easily but it was cool how they were eliminated in the cool 2-D effect that the same baddies from the movie were vanquished. But it would have been nice to see the two be a thorn in Clark’s side for most of the season. But considering the closeness of Lana’s mystery tattoo resembled the one on the females back, we may see them again. And they just may be brought back by the black oil (very X-Files looking) that changed into the form of William the Bloody.
Elsewhere Lois Lane has officially joined the cast and promptly pissed off the visiting Kryptonians nearly getting a broken neck for her troubles. Of course she just a nice precursor until we get to see Kate Bosworth patrolling the Daily Planet when the new Superman movie comes out next year. Also it looks like we may finally witness a pure evil Lex this season which could make this the best season in a while. Granted we have seen that before only for Clark and Lex to be buddy-buddy again by the third episode.
Verdict: If the premier was any indication, I made the right chose in watching Smallville and skipping a slipping Alias and will be battling Everybody Hates Chris for number two in the pecking order at its timeslot.
Everwood
One of the most solid shows in recent memories, even without any monsters, conspiracies, or superpowers has been Everwood. In it run, it has been a well crafted, well written, and well cast. Last night was the start of the new season, now on a new night. The big news last season (see my review - Rocky Mountain High) was that Andy professed his love to Nina, Mama Brown has cancer, and Ephram left for Europe, hopefully never to be seen again, or at least I hoped as his character got extremely annoying last year.
This season started off with a wedding where Andy and Nina are dancing, oh those wacky writer making you think one way but throw you a curve. They then go back a week to retell the story, and within that flashback we see many flashbacks throughout the season. As I predicted, not only was it not Andy and Nina’s wedding, the dude from Party of Five not currently stranded on a deserted island got the girl.
The big new of the season though is Amy’s new haircut. She went from the long flowing, best seen in a slow motion flip, type hair to a shorter, almost mini-Rachael. I have yet decided which I like better, but I’m currently leaning towards the newer version. And I hope that she someday films a comedy because her reaction to finding out her crush was a gay homosexual was priceless. Speaking of which, Bright extra exertion in mentioning Colin was not his partner were great too. Everwood could become the new Will and Grace now that it’s no longer on the air. (Wait it’s still on? I could have sworn it hasn’t been on for about three years now. But anyways.)
Sadly the solid episode was spoiled by the return of Ephram. I seriously don’t like this guy. Hopefully he goes back to Europe soon, because I’m not sure if I can stand another season of him whining. And if he does, with any luck Amy will spend more time trying to convert the homosexual American and ignore Ephram.
Vertict: No much how much I like Everwood and mock Reunion for its poor acting and predictable storylines, I’m drawn to Reunion like passing a car wreck on the side of the highway and will end up taping Everwood and watch it with Smallville on the weekend.
While all the lemmings were watching yet another answerless episode of Lost, I instead was watching the premiere of what was truly the best show of last year, Veronica Mars. When we last left Ms. Mars, we found out who raped her, whether her and Duncan were related and, most importantly we learned who actually killed Lily Kane. But they did leave us with a little cliffhanger of who was at the door that Veronica was hoping to see.
The show started off with Veronica at her new job as a waitress explaining how normal became the watchword after the events of last season. This includes who in fact was behind the door. When Veronica opened the door and said her line, I swear that the silhouette looked like Duncan, but alas it turned out to be Logan. I really doubt after all that just happened that she was happy to see the son of the man who just tried to kill her and that she, like I, thought it was Duncan at the door.
After the synopsis of the summer, the episode quickly transitioned into the mystery of the week formula, this time including many varsity athletes failed their drug tests. Veronica quickly exposes the perpetrators to give time to set the main mysteries of the year. The first came early when Logan was acquitted of killing Felix. Oh and Logan also seemed to hook up with the new token hot chick/trophy wife. Big mystery number two came at the end of the show in a jaw dropping moment (I still haven’t quite recovered) when the bus that Veronica was supposed to be riding on went off the cliff. Holy (expletive deleted)! When the Lily Kane murder investigation was over I wasn’t sure how they could come up with a plot that Veronica could be equally invested in but they really set this plotline up perfectly as not only was Veronica supposed to be on that bus, and was somehow saved by Lily’s ghost, but Meg, who Veronica was trying to make up with after basically stealing her boyfriend, was killed on the bus. And had Meg had not been at odds with Veronica and Duncan; Meg would had joined Dick’s limousine party. Welcome to guilt city.
Speaking of Dick, he and his brother Beaver made it into the credits this year. I never realized how dirty their names are until Duncan asked their step-mom, “Can Dick and Beaver come out to play?” Nor did I even realize that they were related in the first place. And apparently Veronica Mars didn’t meet UPN’s minority quota, a new black girl has also joined the cast although she didn’t make an appearance last night. But we did meet two new recurring characters Cordelia Chase as the pre-for mentioned trophy wife of Dick and Beaver’s dad and Sgt. Carey Mahoney as a new mayoral candidate and owner of the baseball team. And I really doubt that it a coincidence that the candidate’s daughter was supposed to be on the bus that went over the cliff.
Of course the best part of the show is its pop culture references and there were enough last night to make Buffy jealous including West Side Story, Ordinary People, The Godfather, South Park, Bark’s Root Beer Dumass commercial, and Nelly’s spelling of Dirrty. And fore anyone who has not caught the show yet, next week is the best week to start as there will be an appearance of Kevin Smith as a convenience store clerk. No word on if he will have lines or will remain silent yet. And if you miss the first season, don’t forget to buy, rent, or borrow the DVD when it comes out October 11th.
Verdict: You should be watching this while taping Lost. Hey, you can do it the other way, but you must watch Veronica Mars, truly the best show on television today.
As for Lost, I did tape it because, I too am a lemming. I found the episode to be the most boring of the whole season so far. Michael’s flashbacks told us nothing, the scenes set at sea were equally nonsense. They even retold the descent into the hatch seen threw Locke’s eyes with very little news we couldn’t already decipher from last week aside that Kate is in the air vents. And how exactly did Jin make to shore before Michael and Sawyer and how did he not hear either of them screaming the night before when he finally came up for air? Not to mention, how does he know what the word “Others” meant? I doubt he just picked it up in conversation or that Sun put that word in his tutorial. Next week it looks like Lost will get back on track with the (re)introduction of Ana Lucia and we may finally figure out why Desmond is down the hatch and how he came across Jack years ago.
Tonight is the first head-to-head battle between my favorite new shows of last year, Lost and Veronica Mars. Now both are worth watching, but here I will break down which one you should watch live and which one you should watch afterward, not like Invasion is worth watching. (Warning: If you do not want to know what happened last season on either show, you may not want to read this post.)
Token Hot Chick
Lost: Had the inaugural winner of the Hottest Token Hot Chick at the STA’s.
Veronica Mars: No real token hot chick in the cast, has to rely on a new guest token hot chick every week. Granted that may change with the addition of Cordelia Chase to the cast this season.
Winner: Lost
Ickier Inbreeding
Lost: Step-siblings Boone and Shannon hook up after Boone comes to the rescue even after growing up together.
Veronica Mars: A drugged up Duncan has sex with Veronica even though he thinks he’s her brother.
Winner: Lost
Theme Song
Lost: Five seconds of weird sounds.
Veronica Mars: One of the catchiest songs in recent memory, We Used to be Friends.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Death Scene
Lost: Boone falls off a cliff while trying to make contact over a radio.
Veronica Mars: Lily Kane is bludgeoned to death trying to blackmail some one.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Celebrity Guests
Lost: Carol Vessey, The Terminator, and the chick from Sisters
Veronica Mars: Paris Hilton and the dude from LA Law. Granted Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith will be appearing this season, the latter as, of course, a convenience store clerk.
Winner: Lost
Bigger Surprise
Lost: Locke was in a wheelchair.
Veronica Mars: Duncan was the one who rapped Veronica granted he was doped up too.
Winner: Lost
Scarier Setting
Lost: A tropical jungle inhabited by weird creatures and even weirder natives.
Veronica Mars: A concrete jungle where Alpha males and B-girls attend high school.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Better 80’s flashback
Lost: Jack sporting a near mullet.
Veronica Mars: Veronica dressed up like Madonna and Duncan with a Flock of Seagulls hairdo.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Bad Boy You Love to Hate
Lost: Sawyer gets people to hate him to punish himself.
Veronica Mars: Weevil, a gang member with a sweet spot for blond chicks.
Winner: Lost
Love Triangle
Lost: Sawyer and Jack fight for Kate’s attention. Sawyer, unlike Jack, made it to first base, but he’s currently lost at sea.
Veronica Mars: Duncan got there first, not that either one remembered, Logan on the other hand was the most recent to come close. Of course she will have to pick between two guys who have parents that one tried to convince was her brother and the other tried to kill her.
Winner: Veronica Mars
Best Finale
Lost: Arntz blows up, some dudes straight out of Deliverance steal Walt yet over three hours, nothing gets answered.
Veronica Mars: We actually learned who killed Lily Kane but not sure who’s at the door.
Winner: Veronica Mars.
And there you have it; Veronica Mars pulls out the win 6-5. (Blatant trolling for comments alert) What will you be watching tonight?
As a young white kid growing up in the suburbs, I listen to nothing but hip-hop throughout the Middle School years. My love of the genre has died down as I have grown mostly due to the blandness rap has gotten with it endless talk of bling over the same bland beats. I was ecstatic last year when VH1 started up their Hip-Hop Honors awards giving props to the innovators and reminding me of a time when rap was truly king. Last year honored some of my favorites such as Run-DMC, Public Enemy, and KRS-One. This years festivities did a better job of focusing on the inductees with only one performance of a song not made famous by an inductee whereas last year there was about three or four. Other highlights included:
- LL Cool J was the first inductee. I have always been on the fence about him as he was the guy who brought love songs into the culture. Buy on the other hand, Mama Said Knock You Out is a top 5 rap song of all time. LL is paid tribute by Nelly and Ciara, the black Britney (can’t sing, moderately attractive but shows a lot of skin). But how much of a tribute can it be when both need guided vocals to sing the songs.
- Next up is one of the mainstays of my Middle School years, Ice-T. To this day I can recite both the clean and dirty versions of New Jack Hustler. Ice-T is joined on stage by the only other gangsta rapper who has somehow crept into the mainstream Snoop Dogg. Had anyone guess back in '92 that one would be on the most successful TV show franchise and the other would be doing commercials with Lee Iacocca, you would have been accuse of dipping into one of their stashes.
- Many point to Rapper’s Delight as the start of rap, but The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 is where hip-hop started. I did find it odd that during there performance of the song the threw in a line from Matthew Wilder’s Break My Stride just like Diddy did back when he was Puff Daddy when he sampled The Message for Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down. What was stranger was Morbidly Obese Joe inclusion in the whole thing.
- Salt-N-Pepa are next with a hyped performance with En Vouge as the first time they performed together. Am I mistaken or didn’t they perform the Whatta Man during one of the Video Music Awards. Can someone give me confirmation for this? Then during the perfomce the for some reason threw up pictures of Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Ray Charles and I swear I saw Dave Chappelle too. Um, okay.
- I’ll go ahead and admit it, I’ve never seen Boyz 'N the Hood.
- Who invited the dude from Entourage? Was he there just to fill the token white person quota? Wasn’t Ice-T’s wife enough?
- Kanye West comes out and give the most entertaing performance of the night. I don’t say that because of anything he did but that there was some old fat white dude in the second row that had an Art Garfunkel receding afro that had me cracking up thought the whole thing.
- The midget Jermaine Dupree comes out with charms on his watch. No wonder why anyone with credibility makes fun of the dude.
- The induction of Big Daddy Kane is next and the dude can still move. He gets a tribute from Biz Markie on the turntable, T.I. (or Antoine Merriwether as I like to call him), Black Thought of The Roots, and Common sporting a “I Love Black People” t-shirt which seems to be in response to his boss’ “George Bus hates black people” remark.
- Diddy is up last to induct his friend/meal ticket and mentioned Biggie duets album. I have a feeling I’ll pass on that. The finale with Kanye, Ludacris, and Lil’Cease wasn’t as cool as the VMA tribute, but the choir was a nice touch.
If I were on the selection committee for Hip-Hop Honors, here is who I would nominate for the 2006 class (feel free to add anyone you would nominate in the comment section):
A Tribe Called Quest
Beastie Boys
Eric B. & Rakim
N.W.A.
Slick Rick
For a long time, I was a closet Desperate Housewives watcher when it first came out. The main reason I started watching was to see the token hot chick is as little amount of clothes that the censors would allow. The main plot was intriguing, trying to piece together why some suburban housewife would commit suicide. There were many twists and turns that kept me guessing right up to the final reveal, all along with the dead chick giving rather boring monologues throughout the shows. Overall, I wasn’t impressed with the show (check out my review of season one – Desperately Wanting) as many of the awards shows. Seriously, the Golden Globes declared it the funniest show on TV? But anyways.
I was really on the bubble of whether I’d watch it again this season but with Family Guy not being as good since it came back from cancellation and American Dad is nearly unwatchable, I decided to give Desperate Housewives a second look. Plus the apple infused commercials with Better Than Ezra’s Juicy as a soundtrack had be intrigued again.
The season started where last season began, with the plumber dude returning home while his creepy son held Lois Lane captive. Of course no one ended up dieing but at least there was a decent chuckle when the booze hound loses her bottle in the process. But nonetheless, very anti-climatic. Elsewhere, the token hot chick still doesn’t know the who the father of her child is, but at least she isn't showing yet, and the funniest actress on TV, at least according to the Emmy’s, somehow got a job by changing a diaper in her interview. Umm, okay.
What was really disappointing to me was Rex had an open casket funeral, which totally ruins my “Rex faked his death” theory. This then leads to a potential shark jumping scene where the psycho chick from Melrose Place stalks the church for a new tie when her mother-in-law had a tie psycho chick thought was tacky. Yet she then picks a tie that was equally tacky and proceeds to put the tie on Rex. All I have to say is, “Ewww.”
The big mystery of the season was also set up in the season premiere with the addition of the token black family that briefly featured last season. We finally learn the dark secret, that that they are hiding someone in there basement. Granted I guessed that secret the moment they let Edie inside. Now the easy money is on that its dad downstairs but I think dad hightailed it out of there tears ago and the “bad” son is downstairs ala Sloth. The son we did meet is very straight laced and a momma’s boy, I think because he’s seen momma wrath when the “bad” son did something wrong he doesn’t want to join him down there.
Verdict: Much like a car crash, I know I should turn away yet I keep on looking.
Switchfoot broke onto the scene last year with their post-grunge anthems like Meant to Live, Dare You to Breathe, and This Is Your Life off the album, The Beautiful Letdown. Both songs were built around crushing guitars and lyrics that took aim at the complacency of their generation. Not too mention the lead singer wasn’t scared of not hitting every note. The band quickly followed up their success with last week’s release of their follow-up, Nothing Is Sound.
On the album, the band doesn’t stray from what gained them airplay last year with an emphasis on the guitars but this sometimes leads to some paint-by-numbers rock songs such as Golden and We Are Tonight. Disturbingly, the opening to The Setting Sun sounds a lot like the opening to the new Ashlee Simpson song, Boyfriend. When the band tries to slow things down, the results are varied where Shadow Proves the Sunshine and The Blues can be passed over easily but the closer Daisy is worth the listen.
Nothing Is Sound starts off where they left off on Lonely Nation by taking shots of their generation and those who market them, “We are the target market, we set the corporate target, we are slaves of what we want.” More shot at the marketer come later with lyrics like, “Sex is currency, she sells cars, she sells magazines” on Easier Than Love. The band doesn’t reserve the blame to their generation as they take on the previous ones too with Happy Is a Yuppie Word. Our public leaders are not safe from Switchfoot’s wrath either on Politician, “A pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians.” I’m not sure if that is a place I’d like to live.
Song to Download – Daisy
Nothing Is Sound gets a ![Terror Alert Level: Elevated [YELLOW]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6-iVFV0hXCTSYP16K_V0Rrxp3GqFrtBIJKeTUyQ2LpxZQ9XKHFj6QGtqqa7oxhLadLV8vUj8R84AftD8IKUSfN0u_u0CYDtJwhrpCPN2DBWquAIDv0jbVlhZL0mDFKlPKluGyxw/s400/small_elevated.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
How can you possibly go wrong pairing up Tommy Lee Jones with five hot cheerleaders? Luckily Man of the House doesn’t disappoint. Granted, it won’t win any awards, but it does a good job as a time suck with its standard fish out of water story and count them, five token hot chicks.
The story follows Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger, not the kind that would know Derek Jeter as some of the girls think, who is protecting a group of cheerleaders from the University of Texas who have witnessed a murder that is linked to a high powered businessman. The ladies he is protecting include the token hot chick from Undeclared as the brainy one with social anxieties, Vanessa Ferlito, who is on one of the CSI’s, Omaha maybe, plays the tough as nails one but has all the deep thoughts not too mention the only one who could master the Texas accent, Paula Garces, who surprisingly is on the wrong side of thirty playing a college student, and Chistina Milian, best know for her singing career, well actually not really, both play the fiery Latina chick, not sure why they didn’t just combine the characters. The standout of the cheerleaders though was Kelli Garner as the boy, and man, crazy dumb blonde, who brought depth and heart to what could have been just your routine Jessica or Paris caricature. Rounding out the cast was Cedric the Entertainer who’s talents were somewhat wasted as the ex-con turned preacher.
Most of the movie is pretty predictable with the girls helping Jones character get in touch with his feminine side including the prerequisite makeover montage. And it’s a given that they would help him out with his girl troubles including his estranged daughter and the professor of one of the girls. The movie may not be as smart as the other cheerleader movie, Bring it On but Man of the House is worth a rental at the very least.
As for the extra on the DVD, there is a standard making of documentary along with an extra segment following the girls as they learn how to cheerleaders. For some reason before the movie, it runs a warning claiming that the views expressed in the commentaries, yadda yadda yadda, but there are now commentaries to be found but I’m not sure if anyone would want to here the five chick yap about the film anyways.
Man of the House gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.
Last night was the premiere of the most anticipated show of the fall season for me, Everybody Hates Chris. Like many white teenager growing up in the suburbs, I had many of Chris Rock’s routines and would recite them when ever I fit them in a conversation. Now much like my other comedic idol of the 90’s, Denis Leary, Rock has his own television show except Everybody Hates Chris is an autobiographical show with Rock serving as the narrator. Luckily as the narrator, Rock didn’t reveal at the end of the show, the girl he met was actually his kids’ aunt; I’m talking to you Danny Tanner.
The show hit all the right notes with some extremely funny antidotes like when the father knows the price of everything in house and proceed to inform everyone who is around. And unlike Reunion who seems to just pick the top songs from that decade, the music in Everybody Hates Chris hits all the right notes for instance when Ebony and Ivory played as Chris fought with a white bully and even when Rock was legally not allowed to say why the former principal got fired, having Don’t Stand So Close to Me playing in the background, explained everything.
The cast is also well chosen. Terry Crews, last seen as the black dude in White Chicks redeems himself as Rock’s father and has the best lines in the whole show like “Chris, unplug your clock, you don’t need tell time when your asleep, that’s two cents a minute.” Rock’s mother is played by the chick from Martin not named Tisha Campbell, and no I’m not talking about Sheneneh either. The rest of the cast are relative unknown kids led by Tyler James Williams as the younger Rock as does a great job at it even though he does the pitfall of trying to imitate the elder version of Rock which comes of as some one like myself trying to tell one of Rock’s jokes.
Verdict: Not as funny as the first My Name Is Earl but it’s not far behind. I’ll be watching Survivor, but I’ll be taping Everybody Hates Chris on my good VCR and take my chance with Smallville on my other one. Sorry Alias, no room for you.
Invasion
Another day, another new sci-fi premier, the latest, and I believe the last for awhile in the cushy post-Lost time slot is Invasion. It was really hard to get away from the commercials for the show as ABC showed them ad nausea and recently mentioning how every paper in the country says it’s the best drama this year. Granted from the one I’ve seen, that’s not saying much. But when it comes down to it, Invasion really isn’t doesn’t stand above the rest.
The show revolves around a town that has just been hit by a hurricane primarily an extended family that includes a scientist (at least that what I think he does, wasn’t exactly clear) his wife and two children, his ex-wife and her new husband and his daughter. Surprisingly Jerry Springer isn’t involved. The actors that play the characters are pretty much no name with the dude from Tilt being the only person I recognize. And the character themselves are not that likeable tonight asides from the Tilt dude and his reporter wife. His daughter is extremely annoy, maybe is because I’ve her here say things like “Do you see the lights?” and the even worse, “Mommy, you smell different” all summer long. The conspiracy theorist brother-in-law comes off unlikable much unlike the one on Bones who is lot funnier. It becomes obvious early on that the ex-wife’s husband is evil and new about the whole body snatching hurricane scenario before it happened and I have a feeling he set the wife up to be apart of it.
The hurricane theme also makes the show hard to watch. Most people watch television as a form of escapism and with all the 24-hour new station focusing on the damage of Hurricane Katrina and preparing for Hurricane Rita, I really have no desire to see a fake hurricane with all the real one heavily featured everywhere else. Now had ABC had not over-advertise the show, maybe they could have pushed the show to midseason not too mention it would have not watered down the show where everyone knew what was coming before it happened.
Verdict: Everyone will be better off watching Veronica Mars at 9:00 on Wednesday and watching a taped version of Lost at 10:00 (or vice versa depending on your preference). It really sad the Dave's blog is more entertaining than the show he's on.
Lost
After being annoyed all summer because Lost ended on a poor not a couple months ago, the show is finally back with a chance to redeem itself. It started off interesting enough what looked to be a flashback to the 70’s which made me think that Locke might of actually had hair three decades ago, and a nice set of hair to boot. But as the camera panned out to the last scene of the first season with Locke, Jack, Kate, and Hurley looking down the hatch, I realized what we witnessed was what, or to specific, who is in the hatch. I guess I was right in that the hatch was a bomb shelter but I thought it was going to be Boone, Ethan, the marshal, Scott, Arntz, Elvis, and Tupac down there. Oh well.
We are then treated to a bunch of Jack flashback chronicling how he met his wife where Jack is sporting his old Charlie for Party of Five hair. The initial surprise being that she was engaged at the time, but really any one who was paying attention to the last time Carol Vessey was on, she mention that Jack told her she would dance at her wedding. But of course I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t get that until last night. But the stadium flashback was the key one. On a quick side note, how does one get into an empty stadium to run, that really bugged me. But anyways. Near the end of the episode I told the person I was watching, “I bet we see Desmond in more flashbacks this season.” And I wasn’t far off as he turned out to be the one in the bomb shelter. Not that he won't show uip in flashback later. And this makes even more questions, the biggest for me being, if the shows intro suggests, Desmond has been stuck in the shelter since the 70’s, how, and why, does he run into Jack in the late 80’s/early 90’s?
When the band of four get back to the camp, the story turns bad as everyone is still debating about The Others even though we all know where they are. It also seems as if Shannon will get an actual storyline this year because it looks like her, with Vincent’s help, will be the one who rescues Walt.
On a related note, I went back and watch the first season of Alias over the summer because I didn’t start watching it until the third season. I wanted to do so because I didn’t really care too much for the show last season and I wondering if it was because I missed the beginning. As I watch the earlier episodes, it struck me that Alias basically was a big opening followed by a lackluster middle and the show were capped off with a exciting cliffhanger. And with the latest episode of Lost, which is from the guy who brought us Alias, there was the same thing, a great opening and a great ending, but everything in between was lackluster. For me this isn’t a very good sign as I’ve already decided to skip this season of Alias.
Verdict: There is a very good reason while I’ll be watching Veronica Mars and taping Lost.
I was very skeptical when I first heard about My Name Is Earl. It looked really funny, a show about a petty thief who decides to turn his life after winning the lottery. But the whole redneck vibe could easily turn it into another Mullets type show but with a bushy mustache instead of some hair in the back. Not to mention Earl is played by Jason Lee who, much like Ben Affleck, hasn’t done anything worth watching that didn’t involve Kevin Smith.
All my fears were put to rest when I finally caught the show last night. I haven’t laugh so hard since Adam Sandler’s hey day back in the mid 90’s. First the cast is spectacular. Jason Lee as Earl is great at making a criminal into a likable character that you actually want to root for. Jamie Pressly is there doing what she does best – white trash, and she pulls it off effortlessly as Earl’s ex-wife. She quickly shacks up with one of her baby daddies, who I swear is the dude from the Staples ads (or maybe Office Max, its one of those supply stores). Then there is Earl’s balding brother played by the bully from Boy Meets World and go to fat dude ever since. He’s the one character that hasn’t quite grown on my yet. And of course there is a token hot chick that is a maid at the hotel where Earl and his brother are staying.
The first episode was pitch perfect with Earl losing his winning ticket by being hit by a car only to have an epiphany while watching Carson Daly of all people. From there on, he decides to right all his wrongs with Earl’s first step to redemption being to help a kid he picked on in elementary school get lucky. But there is on major problem when it turns out the kid has grown into, what Earl calls a “homosexual-American.” Of course this freaks the simple minded red neck and Earl crosses the kid of his to do list only for karma to bite him in the butt again. This then forces Earl back into helping the gay-American by taking him to a gay bar where hilarity continues ensues.
Verdict: Watch it, tape it, watch it again. Forget House. Forget The Amazing Race. Don’t even bother with Commander in Chief. Now cue up Rob Base and DJ Easy Rock. Oh no I didn’t.
Before I get into the reviews of the shows advertised, I like to mention that I skipped Surface on purpose and you won’t be seeing a review of the show anytime soon. From the commercials, it looked like the worst of the onslaught of sci-fi shows popping up this season, and that’s saying a lot considering I wasn’t too excited about any of them. And reading the reviews for Surface, it looks like no one seemed to like it anyways. Now on to the show I did watch.
Kitchen Confidential
After the horrible The War at Home, this season’s sitcoms didn’t start of on a very good foot. First up sitting in the post-Arrested Development (if you haven’t already, be sure to check out imoscar.com) timeslot was Kitchen Confidential. Hard shoes to fill but they try anyways. The show centers on a top notch chef, the reporter from Alias, who had everything taken away after a cocaine habit brought him down. The show starts with him getting a second chance as the head chef of a new restaurant. The first thing he ha to do is round up his crew which includes Xander from Buffy, the head geek from Freeks and Geeks, and Johnny Cho, who we should be chastised for the unfunny Harold and Kumar movie but instead should be chastised for bring the term MILF into our lives. As for the staff that was already in place we have James King, last seen naked in Sin City, playing the token hot dumb chick/hostess, and Bonnie Summerville as the owner’s daughter who most likely will play Diane to Alias dude’s Sam. But I’m not sure the show will be on long enough for them to actually hook up.
The main problem of the show, much like Emeril’s sitcom and the reality show The Restaurant is many people don’t want to see funny things that happen in the kitchen of a restaurant. We the consumers want to go in blindly unaware of any potential problems that are hidden by swinging doors. Watching the finger cutting will make me think back to the last time I was at my local resteraunt and think, “what if?”
Another problem with the first show was there were just too many characters and many of them were not flushed out. Aside from the main character, the supporting cast got very little screen time to give me an idea of what they were all about such as the Xander & Harold characters. At the end of the show, the fake-restaurant got a review saying that it was chaotic, the help was suspicious, but at the heart, what they serve was good, and if they could get things together the whole establishment could be great, and that could sum up the show itself.
Verdict: You may be better off watching…
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother was my second most anticipated sitcom after Everyone Hates Chris. It has an interesting concept about a father explaining to his teenage children about, obviously, how he met his mother. Okay, the concept is pretty cheesy in a Wonder Years kind of way. Mmm, I just realized that my top two shows I’m was looking forward take from the Wonder Years. Not quite sure if that is a good thing. But Anyways. The real reason I was wanted to see the show is its cast as it features not only Willow but Doogie Howser too. Then they get Danny Tanner to play the role of the dude from City Slickers. How could you possibly go wrong? Rounding out the supporting cast is Jason Segal, yet another Freaks and Geeks alum, this time a freak. Kinda makes me wonder what happened to Bill. Oh well.
As for the lead characters, we are introduced to two new actors Josh Radnor as the dad and Cobie Smulders as the female lead. Radnor really didn’t impress me much but then most leads tend to take a back seat to their surrounding cast. Smulders on the hand did a good job with the whole slightly quirky girl next girl. Now if only I can find a chick who can quote lines from Ghostbusters.
The show itself start off a little sluggish but slowly started out whipping off some good one liners most given by Doogie who looks like the reason to turn everyone. If “suit up” doesn’t enter the American lexicon, that will be a shame. I’m sure I’ll be using it in the near future. I didn’t really care too much for the stop frame to narrating ploy and the ending was bad in a Jack and Bobby kind of way, you know, the kind that ruins the show by revealing the ending way too soon. But unlike Jack and Bobby, it is possible How I Met Your Mother can redeem itself later. Plus it has Doogie and Willow.
Verdict: Watch this over Kitchen Confidential and hope the ending from last night’s show doesn’t completely ruin the show. Now suit up and meet me at the bar in 20 minutes.
