I usually like to post my best shows of the year list after the May finales but at that point The Killing was still in the middle of its season so I decided to delay it because how the season ended would play a role in how it would land on the list. But after actually seeing the finale it was all for naught because the show dropped itself out of the top ten (and the top twenty at that). But even without The Killing, AMC actually managed its first two series on my end of year list. So here are the ten that did not have a finale so bad I wanted to throw the remote at my television:
Below is a running tally of shows that landed a Quote or Song of the Week over the past year.
Quotes of the Week
The Big Bang Theory – 6
Friday Night Lights – 5
The Killing – 4
Community –3
Justified – 3
Rubicon – 3
Castle – 2
Chuck – 2
Modern Family – 2
Pardon the interruption – 2
Pretty Little Liars – 2
Rescue Me – 2
Glory Daze – 1
Greek – 1
How I Met Your Mother – 1
No Ordinary Family - 1
Survivor – 1
Terriers – 1
The Voice – 1
The Sing Off – 1
The Walking Dead – 1
Two and a Half Men – 1
Songs of the Week
Chuck – 4
Friday Night Light – 4
Community – 3
Parenthood – 3
Pretty Little Liars – 3
How I Met Your Mother – 2
Glory Daze – 2
Lights Out – 2
Modern Family – 2
Outsourced – 2
Rubicon – 2
Sons of Anarchy – 2
Terriers – 2
The Big Bang Theory – 2
Castle- 1
Covert Affairs – 1
Franklin and Bash – 1
Greek – 1
Memphis Beat – 1
No Ordinary Family – 1
Rescue Me – 1
Shameless – 1
Survivor - 1
The Voice – 1
Quote of the Week: Do you know what else is going to be distracting to them, is when they turn their phones here in about thirty minutes and they look at iTunes and see you sitting way above their records. That’s going to be so distracting. How are they going to focus with all that iTunes domination happening? (Blake Shelton, The Voice)
Song of the Week: Spirit In the Sky – Norman Greenbaum (Friday Night Lights)
Big News of the Week: Dia Frampton is the Only Player that got Robbed and Kept all Her Jewelry: To be honest I wrote that title right after The Voice finale and opened with a joke about Barry Bonds, George W. Bush and the 1972 Russian Basketball team needing to make room in the asterisk club for Javier Colon. But three days later I do not particularly care anymore because I realized like everything that allows internet voting, the show has no creditability for that simple fact. Sure Dia Frampton still was robbed but since she outsold everyone else on The Voice, having the hightest charting single after ever show and the only one to hit number one on iTunes she should easily find a new record contract and have more flexibility than Javier not being the winner to have more creative control and record with her band Meg & Dia. And keep in mind the person Dia sang a duet with on Wednesday, Miranda Lambert, made it to the finals of Nashville Star and lost to some dude named Buddy Jewel. Yeah, never heard of him either.
But what is frustrating about The Voice is the solution to fix its voting problems is really easy: give equal weight to the three voting methods, 33.3 % from internet, 33.3% from phone, and 33.3% from iTunes. That way people that actually spend their hard earned money on the music have the same say as losers who created a hundred different e-mail accounts because they believe their opinion is more important than everyone else. So if the producers of The Voice are reading this, feel free to use my idea, all I ask for in return is a private performance of Genie In a Bottle from Christina Aguilera (preferably Christina circa 1999). Since I started this with a Kanye West quote, I’ll give the last word to him and his thoughts on the finale:
Falling Skies: It may be hard not to be distracted by plot points that were already used in alien invasion movies. Seeing Noah Wiley dragging the unconscious alien around, it was hard not to think of Will Smith in Independence Day or even Aaron Eckhart in Battle: Los Angeles who also captured aliens for study. But the ending was extremely creepy with both the alien and kid waking up at the same time. You can stream recent episodes over at tnt.tv. You can also download Falling Skies on iTunes.
Pretty Little Liars: I have long been in the A is a not so dead Allison so I am predicting that is who the shadowy figure in the house that her brother is hiding. But what happened to the that one’s chick’s girlfriend’s family that lived in the house? Here they just renting from the family and moved out or are the writers making things up as they go? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.
Friday Night Lights: Holy Smash Williams sighting! Of course that is just what Tim Riggins needed to see right out of prison, his archnemesis excelling at the college level. Hopefully he can get things together by the end of the season. Unfortunately that end of the season is coming way sooner that I was hoping. With every passing playoff game I cringed because the faster they get to state, the faster the season would end. And after avoiding looking up the number of episodes left all season, the promo monkeys finally clued me in that there are only two episodes left. Sigh. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.
Video of the Week: What better day than the 4th of July to honor the newest citizens of the United States of America than with their own documentary Citizen USA which attends naturalization ceremonies in all 50 states. You can watch it Monday at 9:00 on HBO. Here is the trailer:
Next Week Pick of the Week: It’s 4th of July: Go outside, eat some hot dogs and watch the firework.
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 True blood, Harry Potter, The Lying Game, Three 6 Mafia, Life After Film School, Feherty, Larry David, Garry Morris, and Candyman 187.
- Before you get you grilling on Monday, Sunday sees an all new episode of True Blood at 9:00 on HBO. Below is an advanced preview of what you will see. And if you are fan of the show’s music, a third volume of the True Blood Soundtrack which will include a song by Neko Case, will be out this fall.
- Next weekend will be a Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family starting on Thursday with a new movie from the series airing all weekend. Or if you just want to watch them in one sitting, the channel will be airing the first five movies starting at 7:00 AM on Sunday. And if you think you are the biggest Harry Potter, head over to ABCFamily.com to enter your name for a chance to win the “Harry Potter Ultimate Fan Sweepstakes” grand prize which includes Blu-Rays (or DVD’s) of the first six movies and other Harry Potter swag.
- I found Alexandra Chando highly likable during her short stint on Glory Daze and not only does she have her own show, The Lying Game, we will be getting to see double of her as she plays twins on The Lying Game coming to ABC Family this August. Although isn’t the twins switching lives then one disappears the same plot of the Sarah Michelle Gellar show that got demoted to The CW? But anyway. Check out a promo below:
- Academy Award winning Three 6 Mafia (still weird typing that) is back on the scene with a new show, a mixtape and an upcoming album release. Famous Food debuts July 10 and follows the rap duo as they try to start a new restraint with Heidi Montag (huh?), Ashley Dupre (what?), Danielle Staub (who?), Jake Pavelka (seriously, who?) and Vincent Pastore (Big [Expletive Deleted]!!!). You can currently grab DJ Paul’s mixtape Pray for Forgiveness on iTunes while Juicy J’s mixtape Rubba Band Buisness 2 is currently available on livemixtapes.com.
- We are still two weeks away from the premiere of the final season of Rescue Me but this Sunday executive producer Peter Tolan will be on Life After Film School of Fox Movie Channel at 7:30.
- While on this week’s episode of Feherty on Tuesday at 9:00 on the Golf Channel, David will welcome golf legend Tom Watson.
- The New Yorker recently sat down with Larry David where he talks about his less than stellar golf game.
- On this 4th of July weekend Garry Morris is dedicating his new song Faith and Freedom to the men and woman of our armed services and you can download the song for free (right-click the link). The album Faith and Freedom will be released on CD to the general public at a later date.
- More free music alert: get the new track from Candyman 187 Show ‘Em All produced by Candyman 187 & The Havenotz and Skip Saylor or just check out the video below:
Peter Buck once not so affectionately referred to his band’s early nineties records as R.E.M.’s James Taylor period, and sure Out of Time featured the worst song ever by a great artist with Shiny Happy People and included Endgame which sounded like it was lifted from seventies AM radio, but he is not giving the album along with my favorite album by the band Automatic for the People) enough credit. Yes the songs were much mellower than their previous work but the band got out of its comfort zone utilizing different instruments and even included a strings section on multiple songs. So I will be giving Out of Time its due by making it this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
The embracing of new instruments by R.E.M. was best exemplified by the album’s first single and band’s biggest hit Losing My Religion where Buck put down his guitar and picked up the mandolin which was a perfect backdrop for Michael Stipe’s haunting vocals. Half a World Away also featured the mandolin, but in a much more upbeat use than Losing My Religion and featured bassist Mike Mills on his new instrument for the album, the organ and remains one of the band’s most beautiful works of art.
Out of Time also so the introduction of guest vocalist, a first for the band. R.E.M. may have been the first alternative rock group (or college rock as it was called back then) to include a guest rapper on the song, and they even started the album off with KRS-One on Radio Song (which should have been a much bigger hit than it was). Their old Atlanta buddy Kate Pierson of the The B-52's adding vocals to Shiny Happy People, Country Feedback, and Me in Honey.
Though Out of Time was the start of the band’s “James Taylor” era, the album still featured a few songs that would not have been out of place on their eighties albums like Low where Stipe gets low on the vocals against a sparse backdrop of staccato guitars and organ. While Belong features the classic harmonies of Stipe and Mills that really sore in the chorus. But Out of Time was just a great primer for what was coming next with Automatic for the People where the band were at their peak musically.
(CBS)
: This sampler includes songs by Fleet Foxes, The Head and the Heart, and J Mascus.
: This month you can grab albums by Prince, Fleet Foxes, Huey Lewis and the News, and Blake Shelton.
- Old 97’s
