Previewing My Crazy Obsession

Teenage girl fanaticism has been highlighted for years, from Justin Bieber today all the way back to the days of The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Over time, the girls either go onto someone else (remember the Jonas Brothers; it has only been three short years since they were on top) but eventually they grow out of the pin up boys, getting job and marring guys who would never date a girl with the Backstreet Boys plastered all over their walls. Sure us guys had our own obsessions in our youth that we had to grow out of from baseball cards to Garbage Pail Kids to Playboys (okay, some have not grown out of that last one).

But there are a very few select adults who never grow out of their obsessions. I cannot confirm nor deny that a member of my family has an entire room dedicated to My Little Pony. Seriously, wall to wall, shelves completely fill with nothing but little plastic toys and other memorabilia. Naturally that is straight to where my mind went I heard TLC created a show called My Crazy Obsession which premieres tonight at 10:00.

The first episode features a married couple with over 5000 Cabbage Patch Kids. Let that number sit in for a while. The addition to their mobile home that houses their dolls (excuses me, they consider them their own kids on par with their own biological daughter) is as big as the mobile home they live in. They have figured they have spent over $1,000,0000 on their kids in the past twenty-five years and about $1,000 a month in malignance.

Then there is a woman who is obsessed with the color pink. Seriously, her entire apartment is shades of pink. And when I way everything I mean everything down to her dog. The only non-pink I was able to spot was the beak of a pink flamingo and the keys of her mini pink piano. That not crazy enough for you? Well she takes pink food dye with her to restaurants so she can order pink egg salad just in case the restaurant does not have any on hand. Throughout the episode, there are no confrontations or innervations about their obsessions from family, friends, or professionals (are you telling me Dr. Drew was not available?) and any comments of how crazy the people are by acquaintances are done confessional style away from the crazy people.

At the end of the episode it tells you to head over to tlc.com/casting if you know anyone with a crazy obsession who would like to share their story, but after watching the episode I no longer think the family member who may or may not have a My Little Pony room is not nearly crazy enough to be on this show. In fact I am ready after one episode to declare My Crazy Obsession the scariest show on television. Yes, even scarier than The Walking Dead or The River. Seriously, if the Cabbage Patch Kids people are not the basis of the next Chucky movie, I will be severely disappointed.

My Crazy Obsession airs Wedensdays at 10:00 on TLC. Check out a clip below:

It's All Working Perfectly Sutton, Just as We Planned

 
Pretty Little Liars hit television as one of the guiltiest Guilty pleasures of all time so it was not much of a surprised when ABC Family ordered up another television show based on another book series by the person who wrote Pretty Little Liars. Sure, at the time the book version of The Lying Game had not even hit selves yet but Hollywood is not known for its patience. What was surprising was in its original run, they did not pair The Lying Game with its predecessor. That was remedied when the show returned earlier this winter to finish out its first season.

That was not the only change in story for the second half of the season as Annie was replaced on the show, except instead of the old soap opera trick of announcing the new Annie would be now portrayed by Charisma Carpenter, but as it turned out she is an different character, yet shared most everything with the other Annie that we learned in the first half to the point it was clear that they could get an actress with name recognition to play the role and just shoe-horned in a new character instead of just replacing the old actress.

Ironically just as her aunt showed up Char was shipped out of town, trimming some of the fat off the show. She started off what seemed like the comedic relief, but that really did not go anywhere and the character. Also gone from the second half (and really most of the first) was Nisha which seemed for the best because Alec was a much better antagonist from the beginning.

The big mystery from the first half, who is the twins’ mother, took a backseat to two mini mysteries: who was in the proverbial backseat when Sutton took the plunge and who killed Derek. Neither turned out to be all that compelling because it was pretty easy to figure out who was the culprit: Alec by proxy and Alec respectively. That is the problem with only one bad guy on the show, everything bad that happens, you always point to him and always turn out to be right. We have seemed sparks of it so far this season, but hopefully Sutton goes full evil sometime next season, kind of like how she sounded to act before the show began, to spice things up. Or at least bring in another foil or two.

But the last ten seconds gave us a reason as to why the search for the mother went on the backburner the last couple episodes when Sutton greeted Rebecca with, “Hi mom” which already made a potential second season much more interesting than the first one. Now the question is what do they know and when did they know it. And what is their master plan? Presumably we already saw part of it go into motion when Alex was hauled out of his wedding (conveniently right after it was made official) for the murder of Derek. And the dissolving marriage of Ted and Kristen may be another piece.

Even though I just said how Alec was the obvious suspect to the Derek murder, but after the last ten seconds I am not entirely sure. Maybe Rebecca was correct when she told Emma that the photo was doctored, and am now suspicious that Rebecca was the one that murdered him. Those ten seconds put a lot of my previous assumption in doubt (except Ted is totally the father). Just prior to the finale I was talking to someone who mentioned how evil Sutton can be, but I complained that the show would be much better if Sutton went full evil and it looks like she finally did and the second season should be much better because of it. Now if only How I Met Your Mother can have a reveal of the mom as awesome as The Lying Game did.

The Lying Game 1.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

The Voice Post-Blind Auditions Power Rankings

I did not realize just how many Blind Auditions were sat through until I sat down to work on a Power Ranking, almost fifty and that does not even count all the people that did not get anyone to turn around (what the heck happened to Ducky?). Since the coaches will be chopping that list in half during the battle rounds, I decided to just do a top 25 for the power ranking which is how many will make it to the Live Shows plus a bonus person just for a nice round number. So without further ado, here is The Voice Top 25 Power Ranking with a quick thought about each of them:

1. Tony Lucca – The beardless Ray Lamontange

2. Jesse Campbell – A better version of Javier Colon

3. Lindsey Pavao – A less polished Dia Frampton

4. Jamie Lono – Can make me a sandwich any day

5. Whitney Myers – I have not been able to confirmed it just yet, but I am pretty sure she is actually Becky Sproles after dying her hair

6. Nicolle Galyon – Potentially this year’s Dia Frampton, not the most memorable Blind Audition but is poised for a breakout moment if she makes it to the Live Shows

7. Mathai – A much better Raquel Castro

8. Lex Land – A less adventurous Rebecca Lobe

9. The Shields Brothers! – Because America does need to be punched in the face with Rock n Roll

10. Geoff McBride – A funkier version of Jesse Campbell

11. Naia Kete – A dreadlocked Xenia

12. The Line – Thompsons Sisters with more testosterone and talent

13. Charlotte Sometimes – Had a record deal and was on the Warped Tour much like Blake’s finalist last year Dia Frampton

14. WADE – Are we sure this really wasn’t Kevin Hart?

15. Jamar Rogers – The male Vicci Martinez

16. Sera Hill – Better than any female RnB singers from the first season

17. RaeLynn – A sassier version of Casey Weston

18. Angel Taylor – A good voice and all but broke the Cardinal Rule of karaoke contests, never, under any circumstance, try to out-Adele Adele

19. Jermaine Paul – Strong voice but should stop singing white female teen pop songs

20. Lee Koch – He might make dough but do not call him Doughboy because shotgun bullets are bad for your health.

21. Orlando Napier - I did not realize he was playing Waiting on the World to Change when he auditioned and after rewatching it a couple time, I am still not entirely sure

22. Juliet Simms – An edgier Vicci Martinez

23. Jordis Unga – Needs to stop squatting mid performance and do not needlessly change the lyrics

24. Cheesa – If she meant to sound like a boy while performing If I Were a Boy, it was genius, if not, this shot probably went to someone else

25. Chris Cauley – A younger Tim Mahoney


Even though this is advertised as a battle between coaches, they do not actually go head to head until the finals so ranking the teams is kind of silly, but just for fun, I assigned a number to each contestant to see who had the strongest team and here is the Power Rankings for each Coach (which I included all 48 singers). Basically I have one point for the worst singer and forty-eight for the best and here is how strong each team is (in parentheses is the number if you just count my top 25 which surpisingly split evenly between the teams which was not something I did on purpose):

1. Adam – 324 (99)
2. Christina – 320 (93)
3. Blake – 269 (65)
4. Cee-Lo – 263 (68)


So right now it looks like a battle between Adam and Christina for the top and a race to the bottom for Cee-Lo and Blake. Even though I hated the second chance round last year (recognizing the voice defeats the purpose of a Blind Audition), here are the top five singers that did deserve a call back:

1. Ducky – What the heck happened to Ducky? If he had made it to the Battle Rounds he would have been in the top ten of my Power Ranking. If he is not invited back for season three that would be a crime against humanity.

2. Preston Shannon – C’mon, how could Christina not pick him to bolster her Old Black Dude team?

3. Eric Tipton – Much like Adele, it not a good idea to try to match yourself to Daryl Hall, but still solid enough he should have earned a spot

4. Erik Macek – Solid song selection, good voice and still better than a bunch of the tomato cans that were pick

5. Neal Middleton – It is a shame there are no real rock coach on the show

Be sure to return after the Battle Rounds (which I think will be sometime in August) for the next Power Ranking. Until then here is a sneak peak of a Battle Round you can (presumably) look forward tonight featuring Cheesa and Angie Johnson taking on Total Eclipse of the Heart. Only Cee-Lo would think to have someone sing Bonnie Tyler on national television.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 3/4/12

The Walking Dead: Let’s stop pretending that Rick is actually going to kill the kid (who looked like he had two legs, I thought they had to amputate that), if he is not going to leave Shane to be eaten in the school bus, who is a bigger threat to his family than the kid, he is not going to kill the ked. And seriously, who is going to go back to that group of people that left him for dead to kill the people who risked their life to save him? This is a stupid debate; you always side with the people who saved your life. But of course the writing is so bad, they will probably have Rick kill him making Rick no better than Shane.
You can stream recent episodes over at amc.com. You can also download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Voice: I was seriously disappointed Christina Aguilera did not push her button for Preston Shannon, which would have bolstered her old black dude team even more than it already is (which looks to lose a member Monday when Jesse takes on Anthony in the Battle Round). But this really felt like a leftover show because after Whitney Myers got everyone to turn their chairs around there where very few multiple chair turns with the exception of Lex Land who was lucky enough to hit her worse note after she got all the boys to turn around (Christina gave a big Gas Face to the iffy note).

But the naturally the most noteworthy audition went to The Shields Brothers. My first thought when they came on screen was I thought The Voice did not have any “joke” auditions. My second thought when they started to sing was if these two do not make it to the Live Shows where they can sing We’re Not Gonna Take It then make it another round for the prerequisite power balled (preferable Tesla’s Love Song) I’m gonna be very unhappy. Get ready to be punched in the face America because the Shields Brothers should be here to stay.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from the episode using the widget at right.

How I Met Your Mother: I did not think anything was more offensive to the suburbs than Suburgatory until I show Robin’s montage to the suburbs. Seriously, it is not that bad.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Lying Game: Oh snap! Emma slapped Sutton in the face! I almost wish the show would turn Sutton 100% evil like a WWF heel turn where she bashes someone in the back with a folding chair for no reason.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: “Seriously, a bow?” My thoughts exactly.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

The River: Wow, the Spanish chick did not know the tale of the ghost ship going in. A bit surprising. I was more surprised that the skivvy cameraman did not sacrifice himself for the hot chick’s father. Seemed like it would have been a fitting ending to his storyline.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The River on iTunes.

Justified: Some more chess pieces shuffled around this episode in the four person match between Ray;an, Boyd, Limehouse, and Quarles and it looks like next week Quarles will be eliminating another pawn as I get the sense he is going to kill Wynonna’s (ex?)husband and pin it on Raylan. I’m still waiting for when all four of them show up at the same place at the same time, or at the least three of them.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Parenthood: Even with all the obstacles throughout the season, I never thought that the season would end with Julia not having Zoey’s baby. But a heartbreaking end to the most heartbreaking storyline in the show’s history. For a second there I thought next season they would end up adopting Drew and Amy’s kid they conceived at the wedding. And I am not optimistic with the her adopting a grown boy of an incarcerated woman, I do not see that ending well either. The most absurd moment goes to Adam ripping up the $2 million+ offer at a wedding. What I do not understand is why not sell a share of the Luncheonette? Adam gets his money, Crosby would still be the engineer and the general public would get more Dwayne Wayne next season. That is what they call in the business a win-win-win.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Survivor: One World: Kat v Troyzan should go down in the annals of time as one of the greatest duel ever in the history of time. I am just disappointed they went to a montage, there was so much filler in the episode, they could not show the whole thing? Hopefully the duel in its entirely show up on ESPN Classic sometime soon.

On the flip side, Colton is really giving Russell Hantz a run for the most annoying contestant ever title and it is only three episodes. Hopefully his island of misfits alliances turn on him soon, and soon enough to split the vote to smoke out the immunity idol. It is hard to think he will be long for this world because he is managing to play an even worse strategic game than Russell (and that does not even encompass his ghetto trash comment). The longer Colton stays in this game the worse this season is going to be no matter how entertaining Kat’s stupidness is.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Suburgatory: Apparently it was croquet week between Suburgtory and How I Met Your Mother and as the McGavin family reigning champion, I was annoyed how they got it wrong, you do not have to swing between your legs and George’s golf swing is actually better. And their wickets were too far apart at the beginning of the course. Seriously, Suburgatory, if you need a croquet technical advisor, shout me a holla.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Revenge: I was a bit surprised that they went ahead and told us who killed the rent boy (Mr. Miyagi was very high on my short list anyway) but I guess the big question that is supposed to drive the rest of the season is not who killed him, but who will take the fall. The show sadly did not pull the trigger by having Daniel end up being the dead guy from the series premiere so I wonder if they will actually put him or Jack behind bars. If we are lucky, Decland will end up taking the fall for his brother.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 3/3/12

Quote of the Week: We want to really punch America in the face with rock n roll because America needs to be punched in the face with rock n roll. (The Shields Brothers!, The Voice)

Song of the Week: To Make You Feel My Love – Billy Joel (Parenthood)

Scene of the Week: What did the five fingers say to the face:



Big News of the Week: A Melancholy Happy Tails to Davy Jones: Even though it stopped airing new episodes longer a decade before I was even born, The Monkees remained must see television for kids of all ages for years after the group tried to get serious. The show was slapstick gold and even though the fictional musical group were just hired as actors, the songs were surprisingly great most notably the show’s theme song, I’m a Believer (written by a pre-fame Neil Diamond) and their biggest hit Daydream Believer sung by Davy Jones and those songs will live on.

Preview Picture of the Week:



Most Worthless Character on The Walking Dead This Week: Andrea
When Andrea and Lori had their post suicide attempt confrontation I just sat there debating with myself which character was most worthless and realized there are a lot of worthless characters on the show that should be eaten by zombies sooner than later and so I thought I would make it a weekly event. Please note that the award will only be eligible to characters that appear on screen that week.

Free Download of the Week: Well They’re Gone – The Dandy Warhol (Rolling Stone)

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5 Each: This month you can get for only $5 albums by Dia Frampton, Guru, Kathleen Edwards, and Roxette.



New Album Release of the Week: Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen

New DVD Release of the Week: Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season

Video of the Week: This really was not what I was expecting for a Veronica Mars reunion. Yep that is Ronnie, Dick, Piz, and Mercer (the rapist). But this is still marginally more entertaining than House of Lies.



Next Week Pick of the Week: The Lying Game, Monday at 9:00 on ABC Family: A show that started as a search for the twins mother seemed to sputter out in the second half of the season as they spent more time realizing just how evil Alec is. Although ever since she walked on screen it was apparent to everyone (except apparently the characters on the show) that AnnieRebecca was the twins birth mother. So I guess the big question as the first season comes to an end, will anyone on screen realize this (or that Ted is actually the biological father too) as she marries Alec.

Around the Tubes - 3/2/12

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist, Great Performances, No Kitchen Required, Stevie TV, Alice in Wonderland, Ancient Aliens, Dallas, Touchback, Gary "G" Jenkins, Zac Brown Band, Conan, Smithsonian Channel, Masters of Sex, Mob Wives, and Late Night.

- New Special Alert! This Sunday on the National Geographic Channel will be airing Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist which is surprisingly not some zany comedy starring Ben Stiller but the story of a NASA intern who stole a cache of moon rocks kept at the Johnson Space Center valued at almost $300 million, making it the biggest heist in history. Thankfully it is not a comedy so we do not have to hear “Houston we have a problem” catchphrase ten times in the movie. But anyway. Check out a clip below:

Lunar Sting


- The latest episode of PBS’s Great Performances will feature The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall airing this Sunday at 7:00 in honor of its 25th anniversary (check your local listings).

- New Show Alert: from the producers of Chopped and Survivor comes a new show that is surprisingly a combination of the two: No Kitchen Required. As the titled suggests, three chefs are dropped in exotic locations where they must work with the locals to hunt, fish and forage for ingredients to create locally-inspired meals. No Kitchen Required premieres Tuesday at 10:00 on BBC America.

- Also premiering soon is Stevie TV on VH1 this Sunday at 10:00, a new sketch comedy show starting YouTube sensation Stevie Ryan who impersonates Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber, Kendra Wilkinson, Lady GaGa and Audrina Patridge.

- For those that have not been watching ABC Family the last couple week, the television premiere of Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp premieres tomorrow at 8:30 and will reair Sunday at 7:30.

- Another episode of Ancient Aliens airs tonight on H2 and for people who are fans of the show and fans of money will want to head over to their Facebook application where you can win $10,000 by deciphering their Ancient Alien code.

- We are still a couple months until the relaunch of Dallas, but for those wondering what JR Ewing has been up to since the show went off the air, TNT has added a Timeline to the DallasTNT Facebook page as told by JR.

- Coming to theaters April 13 is Touchback starring Brian Presley, Melanie Lynskey, Marc Blucas, Kurt Russell, and Christine Lahti. Head over to Yahoo! Movies to exclusively watch the trailer.

- Silk recently made my list of the 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 90’s with their epic slow jam Freak Me and for those wonder what they are up to these days, Gary “G” Jenkins has recently released a new single I Love which is currently available on iTunes.

- Country band Zac Brown Band recently teamed up with Jack Daniels (natch) for a new batch of commercial. Check one out below and of course drink responsibly:



- Are you a Conan fan with a tablet? Well today is your lucky day because Team Coco has just released a tablet app that features video clips, live billboard comments, photos and slide shows, background info on guests, polls and quizzes, factoids and trivia, memorable quotes, as well as Facebook and Twitter feeds.

- For those iPad users who are more into serious topics, Smithsonian Channel just released an app that features short stories and full length episodes and specials.

- Just when you thought hearing Lizzy Caplin starring in a show called Masters of Sex could not be better, Showtime recently announced that they have just cast Beau Bridges and Mags Bennett herself Margo Martindale. Production begins next week.

- It is Halloween this Sunday on Mob Wives for a brand new episode.

- And just because, John Legend and The Roots covering Dancing in the Dark for Springsteen week on Late Night.

John Legend – Dancing in the Dark (2/29/12)

Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Ma Coo Sa

Last week Amazon did one of the absurdly cheap daily sales for Thriller and I came to the realization that I never upgraded my cassette tape version to CD so I jumped on the deal (please not as of this writing it is back up to $9.99, which is probably cheaper than what you paid for it on cassette). Thirty years later, yep the Michael Jackson album hits the big 3-0 later this year, it is easy to forget how big the album was but when a great song Baby Be Mine is the least recognizable track on the album, you are doing something right. Seriously, Thriller, which is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, is pack with more hits than most artists’ Greatest Hits albums.

Thriller starts off what remains today one of the great party starters Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ which will have everyone within ears shot shouting along the ending tribal chanting. And who else but Michael Jackson can make calling you a vegetable sound fun? Jackson was also one of the few people who could recruit a Beatle to sing one of his songs on his album and even battled for a girl’s affection with Paul McCartney on The Girl Is Mine.

And that just the start of the album, then you get to the heart of the album and Thriller, Beat It, and Billie Jean is the musical version of the Murder’s Row. Each song is vastly important in its own way. Billie Jean and it lighting effects because the first music video by a black artist t hit heavy rotation on MTV. Then MTV helped catapult Jackson into legendary status with the fourteen minute movie for Thriller turning the new medium into must see television. And as much as Rihanna and the pop stars tried, Thriller remains the darkest pop song of all time. And of course what better compliant than when Beat It got the “Weird Al” Yankovic treatment? And forget the aging Beatle, Jackson recruited an in his prime Eddie Van Halen to play guitar on the song.

The sneaky great song on the album is Human Nature. The smooth delivery and sythy backing music is almost Yacht Rock and maybe is Michael’s most sampled song in his catalogue. Thriller is really a great rediscovery for those that have yet to upgrade it to your digital library. Hopefully Bad gets the deeply discounted treatment soon because I need to upgrade that also to the digital age in the near future.

Previewing Awake

For years now, the networks have tried to recreate the sci-fi magic that Lost had in its first season leading its wake numerous one and done series like FlashForward, Threshold and Surface. This season the networks tried a little different, mix the sci-fi elements with procedurals, much like the godfather of modern day sci-fi The The X-Files. This season alone has seen Persons of Interest, Grimm, Alcatraz, and Touch, featuring law enforcement agents with special abilities or ones chasing bad guys that are not normal.

Awake is a different kind of sci-fi show, the lead cop Jason Isaacs (Black Hawk Down) does not have any special powers nor do the baddies he is chasing down. He is quite simply living a double life and not like the lead character of the short lived Lone Star who had two wives that did not know about each other (Kyle Killen created both shows). After a car accident in which his wife survived and son did not, whenever Isaacs closes his eyes to goes to sleep he wakes up and his son survived and wife survived.

Sound confusing? It kind of is. Isaacs wears a blue wristband in Kid-World and a red is Wife-World but the clues are not as obvious to us the viewer. In both worlds, Isaacs has to see a work appointed physiatrist, in Wife-World BD Wong (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) is more aggressive in his session than in Kid-World shrink Cherry Jones (Erin Brockovich) who is more nurturing but both believe the other is a figment of Isaacs’ imagination.

In each world, Isaacs has two different partners. In Kid-World he is teamed with his long time partner Steve Harris (Friday Night Lights) but in Wife-World he is assigned to a newbie Wilmer Valderrama (Columbus Day) yet both appear in the other timeline, Harris is naturally an ex partner while Wilmer is still a uniformed cop. Makes me wonder how long it will take Isaacs to Google the other shrink to see if they exist in the other world.

Naturally there is a son and wife in the cast for their respective timelines. Laura Allen (Terriers) plays the wife while Dylan Minnette is no stranger to alternative universes as he also played Jack Sheppard’s son who also turned out to be a figment of his imagination (or something like that, I do not care to over think the abomination that was the final season of Lost). Rounding out the cast is Dylan’s Tennis coach Michaela McManus (Castle) after he took up his mother’s favorite sport after she died in his world and may or may not be a love interest of Isaac. Which begs the question, can you cheat on your wife if she is only alive in the other universe?

The problem with Awake is I am not sure who the show is aimed at. Sci-fi fans may be turned off buy how procedural the show may end up being while fans of cop procedurals may get confused by the two worlds on the show (let’s face it, sci-fi fans may find that confusing too). But if the show does manage to thrive in the long run, here is a Spoiler Alert for how the series ends: Neither worlds are “real” because Isaacs is the one who actually died in the car crash while his wife and son survived.

Awake airs Thursdays at 10:00 on NBC. For those that do not want to wait to watch it tonight with commercials, you can download the premiere episode of Awake on iTunes for free or just go ahread and steam it below via nbc.com.

Let’s Set the World on Fire We'll Burn Brighter than the Sun

It is a pretty bold statement when you name your band fun.. It may have been better if a emo band used that as a name semi-ironically but fun. is an indie pop band through and through. Making things worse is the pretentious stylization of the name: lower case “f” and a period (I thought punctuations in band names went out of fashion around the middle of last decade). But guess what, fun. is actually kind of fun. They started out solidly enough with songs like All the Pretty Girls from their first album which sounded like a more assessable version of Scissor Sisters.

Now fun. is primed from the big time with the release of their sophomore outing Some Nights. And bigger does not only describe their bandwagon but their sound as they repeatedly go for Queen style theatrics. Even when they go into Queen territory they manage to stay away from the pit falls of previous Freddy Mercury wannabes by never going over the top most notable in the title track (as well as Some Nights – Intro). Some Nights itself has a great tribal drum beat and chant along whoa’s and just the right amount of guitar, unfortunately they ruin the song a little bit with about ten seconds of unnecessary auto-tune before bring back some more awesome whoa’s.

fun. hits it peak when the band aims for an anthem with We Are Young and hits it out of the park with an instant sing-a-long that you will be able to join by the second chorus. Seriously, just try not singing along at some point. Just when you think things cannot get better Janelle Monae shows up to sing one line. And you know a sign of a good song is when it sounds just as good stripped down and yes the acoustic bonus version of the song is just as good. And the good times flows into songs like One Foot and Carry On.

There are a couple missteps on Some Nights. When It Gets Better first came on with its electro beat, I actually thought my computer was doing something wrong and was playing something it was not supposed to, the song just completely sticks out like a sore thumb. And if the ten seconds of auto-tune during Some Nights is unnecessary, then the auto-tune during most of Stars is downright painful to sit through much like the second half of Kanye West’s Runaway, but much longer. When will artist realize there has not been a good use of auto-tune since Peter Frampton put that weird tube thing in his mouth?

Song to Download – We Are Young

Some Nights gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 2/27/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Simple Song - The Shins



Who would have guessed The The Shins, you know, the band that Natalie Portman told you would change your life, but didn’t, could actually be funny, and funny in death at that?


Charlie Brown - Coldplay



The new Coldplay video needs more elephants. But anyway, after listening to this song for a couple months, I still have no idea what it has to do with Charlie Brown (fun fact: I dressed up as Charlie Brown for Halloween in grad school).


Love Interruption - Jack White



Wait a second, wasn’t that chick on the most recent season of The Sing-Off in the new Jack White video?


Gimme a Kiss – Madi Diaz



Talk about a plot twist, the way it started all cheery, I did not see Madi Diaz putting on Kiss makeup a minute in. Even more surprising to took me until about the 2:30 mark to get the Gimme a Kiss in Kiss makeup connection.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 2/26/12

Once Upon a Time: I was half expecting that the guy under the gold amour to turn out to be motorcycle dude. Instead he just copied (I think) Henry’s book for some unknown reason (I still think he is the author). I also am assuming that August W. Booth is an anagram for something; I am just too lazy, and do not care enough, to figure it out. Either way I just hope they do not drag it out for that much longer.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Poor Jody, married for not even a full episode before getting kicked out. Hopefully he sticks around for the rest of the season to sing more horrible songs.

The Walking Dead: It is never a good sign for a show when one of the mail leads is left in pearl and the audience universally cheers for her potential death even though she is one of the main leads and everyone knows in the back of their minds knows that she will make it somehow. But I am sure there were a lot of watcher disappointed that Lori actually survived flipping her car twice and two zombie attacks. Another bad sign: the most entertaining moment of the entire episode was the unintentional comedy of Maggie brushing aside her father to hug Glen.
You can stream recent episodes over at amc.com. You can also download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Pan Am: It is too bad the show took itself too seriously in the beginning because now that they have started incorporated more absurd plotlines like Kate taking down a British intelligence agent, Collette dating a prince, and best of all, Ted’s open marriage (c’mon, who turns down a proposal to be married to the hot chick from the annoying vampire films and have the token hot chick as a marriage).
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pan Am on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Very high on my list of potential “A” was the trio of Hermy the Hermaphrodite, the blind chick, and Mona, although if A is targeting Mona, that really puts holes in that theory. Unless Mona as A did it to through the Liars off her scent now that they are closing in. Although now that we know at least two of the Liars’ families have ties to that shut down law firm that was connected to the phone number, I wonder what exactly happened at the place.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Voice: Sure there have been three artists so far that I had on my iPod previous to the show, not only do I have Charlotte Sometimes in my music library, I have actually written about here on the 9th Green. And just to show how great talent scout that I am, four years ago I predicted a bigger career for Charlotte over Katy Perry (see Toss Up: Katy Perry vs. Charlotte Sometimes). Oops. But her song How I Could Just Kill a Man (which as it turned out was not a Cypress Hill cover) even came in at #44 on my list of The 100 Best Songs of 2008; #36 on The 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 00’s; and #608 on The 1000 Greatest Songs of the 00’s.

One thing the struck me while watching Nicolle Galyon (who apparently stole Jennifer Morrison’s Thiller jacket from Once Upon a Time) play the piano is that maybe the coaches should be let in on what instrument the contestants are playing because that could be a selling point for the contestant especially for sandwich maker Jamie Lono whose guitar picking was what made his take on Folsom Prison Blues so unique. But then again the show is called The Voice, not The Musician.

One of the breakout moments of this season is just how irate Blake Shelton gets whenever someone presses their button after he does. It may overtake Carson Daly’s awkward high fives with contestants as most entertaining moments on the show. And what was with the blink and you’ll miss it cameo from Kirk Franklin who also landed on my Greatest One Hit Wonders but for the 90’s, which makes me wonder if Anthony Evans was in God’s Property. At any rate, Christina Aguilera again bolstered her old black dude contingent.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, what the heck happened to Ducky?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from the show through the widget at right.




How I Met Your Mother: Whew, we really dodged a bullet there with Ted realizing Robin was in love with Barney, I could not stand another season of that coupling.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Lying Game: They have hinted at it for since the beginning but it was nice to see Sutton go straight up evil this week having both Emma and Ethan think the other had an affair during their time apart.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: I knew the rouge CIA guy was not the bad guy, but I did not see the Flashdancer being a KGB sleeper agent who had nothing better to do than bring down the world’s government. Now that is what I call a plot twist. I guess since Caste’s father was in the CIA I have a feeling he will end up tying into Beckett mother’s murder. Who knew Castle even had a dad?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: Is it wrong that I was highly entertained by the fight in sign language?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

The River: Just when you think Eloise Mumford could not get any more geek chicier when she donned glasses last week, she breaks out an accordion this week. If she wears a Ramona Flowers wig next week, my head might explode. But the endings to these episodes are really getting cheesy. So far they have trapped an evil spirit in blood and dumped it in the river, traded the bones of a mother for another, appeased natives by simply saying they would sacrifice themselves (but not actually doing so), and this week they broke a curse by breaking a phone holding a sacred video. The show really needs to cross the proverbial lines one of these days.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The River on iTunes.

Justified: Where last season had a new showdown between the principals even other episode this season has been a much slower burn to the end with Raylan, Boyd, crazy Detroit Guy, and Bubba Gump playing some weird four person chess board that Sheldon Cooper would invent. Hopefully we start getting some checkmates soon and have them not all come in the season finale.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Parenthood: Just when you think they could not make the Julia / Zoey storyline any more heartbreaking, there is Zoey at the end of the episode holding the son she could not bring to hold after delivery. I am still holding out hope that Julia just goes ahead and adopt Zoey and her kid. And someone should tell Crosby that when Dwayne Motherfracking Wayne tries to give you a million dollars, you take it. Does he not realize how many flip sunglasses that would buy?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Survivor: One World: Where the frack was Probst during the reward challenge? Are they slowly transitioning into a Probst-less version of the series in the near future? I really hope not. When they first showed the Immunity Challenge I thought it would originally favor the woman because females have better balance than med do, but forgot about other, um, assets women have that men do that would get in the way give the guys the heavy advantage. But again I was wrong after it was brought to my attention that the last Men vs. Women season, this exact challenge was won by the girls’ tribe and won before the guys could get a second member in. So apparently these women may be the most dysfunctional tribe in the history of Survivor. But on the bright side, Kat looks really good doing it.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Suburgatory: Yep, Dalia remains the most evil thing on television, her diatribe at the dance was downright spine tingling (although I kind of hope it is a bit of foreshadowing of what is to come). And it might be time to give Kimantha more screen time.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Happy Endings: It is nice to see that I am not the only person that grows a beard in winter time. It is totally practical.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Happy Endings on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Exes: Watching Camilla’s drunken ten minute tirade I came to the realization that Survivor really needs to start have more alcohol related reward challenges.
You can stream recent episodes over at mtv.com. You can also download The Challenge: Battle of the Exes on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: Bongo Solo!!!!!!!
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.