It was 85 degrees yesterday, and is supposed break 90 today, so there is no better soundtrack to global warming that Sunny Hours by Long Beach Dub All-Stars. The band was formed by the remaining members of Sublime and yes that was will.i.am making a cameo in the song before he met Fergie, who basically is good music kryptonite and turned the Black Eyed Peas into crap. I guess you can attribute the lack of success of this song to the album it was on was auspiciously released on 9/11/01 (the song landed in at number three on my list of the best songs of that year). But it is definitely a song you should be on everyone’s iPod:
This weekend I will be participating in a charity event so time this week is a little scarce (well, the eighty degree weather is also keeping me from sitting in front of the computer). So I thought I would throw up another widget this time where you can listen to the 100 Best Songs of 2006. Keep in mind you cannot get all the songs on the list at Amazon MP3, so you may want to click the link to see all 100 songs on the list.
It is weird compiling a list of the best television for the past year with so many shows disappearing in the middle of the year or being rushed to complete the sessions with a couple less episodes that were planned. It was interesting with all my bemoaning of hoe horrible the new batch of shows were last summer, freshmen shows dominated the list with four of the top five shows. Here are my picks anyways for the best of the last twelve months:
A nice even split among the networks this year (not counting the unwatchable FOX or The CW) with cable getting a share of the pie this year too. Below is a breakdown as well as a running tally of the shows that led in numbers of Quotes and Songs of the Week from my weekly 57 Channels rundown:
NBC (3) ABC (3) CBS (2) FX (1) ABC Family (1)
Quote of the Week Friday Night Lights (9) The Big Bang Theory (5) Lost (4) Pushing Daisies (3) How I Met Your Mother (3) My Name Is Earl (2) Journeyman (2) Eli Stone (2)
Song of the Week Eli Stone (6) Journeyman (5) Everybody Hates Chris (3) My Name Is Earl (3) Smallville (2) Friday Night Lights (2) Chuck (2) How I Met Your Mother (2) Pushing Daisies (1) South Park (1) Lost (1)
Thanks to the writer’s strike, this was a weird year for television. Some shows ended around Christmas and won’t be coming back until the fall with some never to be seen again. But on the bright side, this was the first time in a very long time that a show I loved didn’t get canceled. This year’s awards also mark the first time Veronica Mars didn’t win top honors for Best Scripted Show on account that it is no longer on. So without further ado, let’s see who took over the top spot for this years STA’s.
Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Midget Mac (I Love New York)
Best Quote: What is the rate of exchange on the life of a bird because if equal to or greater than mine I gotta get back to my car. (Emerson Cod, Pushing Daisies)
For the first time in a decade Mike Myers hosts the MTV Movie Awards and may be the last time the show was throughly entertaining. Here are my thoughts on this years show:
- Of course one of the reason even MTV’s Award Shows are no longer that much entertaining is all the shameless plugs, two of which made it in the first segment of the pre-show with the brunette from The Hills and The American Mall. And do teenagers even go to the mall anymore?
- Second segment and two more shameless plugs with The Search for Elle Woods and Rock Band. Yawn. And The House Bunny looks not at all watchable.
- Should I know what Twilight is? Wasn’t that a Reese Witherspoon movie? Is this a remake?
- Really, an American Gladiators sighting?
- MTV really needs to cut ties with Paris Hilton. Actually I need to cut ties with MTV.
- Now onto the big show. The last time Myers hosted TV Guide called it one of the funniest things ever on television. I don’t think if they updated the list that the 2008 version will make the list.
- Rainn Wilson, that dude next to you doesn’t even vaguely look like the dude from No Country for Old Men, he looked like Fabio with a nose job in a bad wig that vaguely looked like the bad guy’s hair from that movie.
- Holy Wallace Fennel sighting... as a cheerleader? In a crappy gum commercial. Ugg. And I thought the Hot Pockets was low.
- Should I know the dude with Will Ferrell?
- Huh, Spider-Man 3 lost to a movie I never heard of in the Best Fight? Has anyone else heard of the movie?
- FN’MTV indeed. Exactly what want to do on Friday nights, stay home and watch music videos.
- Ah, a Chewbacca winning the Lifetime Achievent Award, they should really bring that back.
- The food chick: also won’t be included in the next list of funniest things ever on television.
- Sweet, Wayne's World, complete with Garth. Naturally when talking about Garth’s nether regions, a shot of Paris Hilton, and talk of Tila Tequila going both ways, a shot of Lindsay Lohan.
- Nice of Johnny Depp to show up from back stage, too good for the common people like Will Smith. Which begs the question how did he get nominated let alone win?
- Tom Cruise presenting a Generation Award to Adam Sandler? Sure, makes sense to me. But his package looked like a highlight reel of my DVD collection.
- The Tropic Thunder thing is how you shamelessly promote something.
- Wow, presenters that are not all from the same movie. And Diddy and Lindsay Lohan doing political comedy, did that really just happen?
- Seriously, From G’s to Gents? Why?
- Brendon Frasier has reached present by himself tier? Alrighty.
- I’m getting a sense that the Johnny Depp fan club found a way to stuff the ballot. Did anyone actually see that movie.
- After hearing their new song, I guessing the Pussycat Dolls era is coming to a close. At least the Coldplay performance was decent even with the French army gear on.
- Another award to a movie I never heard of until tonight in the Best Kiss category.
- - Wait, was Robert Downey Jr. cleanly shaven when he accepted that stupid award earlier? And Transformers wins Best Movie. I really need to stop watching this crap.
Like many dudes my age, my childhood toy box was filled with plenty of Transformers and Hot Wheels. But the favorite for me were the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame. Sure it is easy to look back now and without a shadow of a doubt that He-Man was a juicer, only Barry Bonds had a bigger transition than He-Man did when he transformed from Prince Adam, but the memories are still there.
That is mostly because Big Head He-Man really never ranked in my top five favorites in the series. Easily my favorite of the Masters of the Universe wasn’t even technically a Master as it was one of Skeletor’s minions, Kobra Khan. That was a must annoy the parents until they cave and buy it situation when he came out if only because he could spray water out of his mouth. I am sure I cried for weeks when one of my uncles broke the neck, making the spray function useless.
The toys have had an auspicious track record outside the action figure line and cartoons. The movie version, starring Courtney Cox, could be the worst film adaptation with only Super Mario Bros. able to jump in that argument. . Maybe not so ironically both fantasy movies had plotlines where the protagonists came to Earth. But anyways. Sadly it looks like they are going to try a new live action version in the new future. And the toys really only live on today in jokes about certain starlets of today and their resemblance to Skeletor.
Then a recent reboot of the franchise back in 2002 with a reinstruction of the action figure and a Cartoon Network show, the first volume of which my sister and all her infinite wisdom though I would enjoy and gave it to me as a gift. And darn if nostalgia made me give it a look. The new show is very reminiscent of the cartoon of my youth right down to the cheesy, in a good way, moral epilogues. although He-Man is a little more ambiguously gay this time around. Volume two was recently released with the third and final one later this year, which may just have to be added to my Christmas list.
Big News of the Week: The History Channel Changes Name to History: Um, yeah, alright. Did the rapper born as Sean Combs have something to do with this inexplicable name change?
Coalition Links of the Week: According to one poll, Hugh Laurie and Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel are the Brits with the best American accents on TV. BuzzSugar wants to know who else does a good American accent. (BuzzSugar)
Marcia and Fergus liveblogged Eurovision, the only music contest to feature Olympic ice skaters, knitting brides and pirates. Take that, American Idol. (Pop Vultures)
Who's the most overrated couple on television today? Meredith/Derek or Henry/Betty? You tell us. (RTVW Online)
LOST. SO. AMAZING! (Vance is still gasping for air.) (Tapeworthy)
The highlight of Jace's week? The jaw-dropping and brilliant season ender of Lost. The low point? Watching the pilot for the brutally awful US adaptation of Spaced. (Televisionary)
The same-sex escapades continued on Work Out and our resident lesbians answered viewer questions about Jackie Warner's taskmaster tendencies as well as the shameless hot tub scenes with Renessa and Greg. (TiFaux)
Ashley picked her jaw off the floor long enough to reflect on the Lost finale and the season-ending shocker. (Tube Talk)
Kate picked the top five summer shows she's looking forward to this summer - and Wipeout wasn't one of them, thank you very much. (TV Filter)
Lost: I listed a bunch of questions during my season review (see We Got to Go Back Kate) but one I didn’t think of until after I posted is what is going to be real time in season five? It looks like getting back on the island will be the theme of next season so will they be flashbacking to the island, or Sawyer at el will be present day on the show and the Oceanic 6 will only be seen in flashforwards? Or, of course, both? Well we only have eight months to debate that I guess. Check out the latest episode over at ABC.com.
Promo of the Week: Some say I Love Money, premiering July 13 on VH1, is going to be the greatest reality show ever while some argue that we will look back in ten year and pinpoint the show as the downfall of western civilization. I say way not both. But after watching the promo I got to wonder where my boy Midget Mac is? He better not have gotten voted off early and the camerman just are not panning down to get him in the shots.
Next Week’s Pick: Fear Itself, Thursday at 10:00 on NBC: The show may not seem too interesting except for horror fans, but the first episode stars Landry Clarke and the moderately attractive Mircea Monroe.
There really is no more polarizing show on television on Lost. Whether arguing that it has fallen off since the first season or it is actually better than it ever is, or even arguing about what it all means, it is hard not to have an opinion on the show and argue to your last breath on that opinion. This was the season I decided to stop being frustrated with all the unanswered questions and the absurdity of it all. If I were a Lost character this season I would be Paulo before the whole dieing thing, just a dude in the background while the Jack’s and Locke’s argue over every minute and inane detail of the show.
If there were a season for the show to shake itself off the funk it has been in since the excruciatingly boring first season finale, it was this one thanks to the jaw dropping last scene of season three that introduced up to the concept of a flashforward. So for season four we had a nice mix of flashbacks, flashforwards, and whatever the frak that Desmond-centric episode was.
Naturally the writers dropped the ball with some of the flashforwards, thinking that a big reveal at the end would make up for the otherwise substandard rest of the episode. Yes I am talking to you Kate. But then you had the edge of your seat ones like Sayid and Not-Henry, which I was actually right was not really a flashforward. I have a theory that when he went behind his bookcase after they killed his daughter he wasn’t summoning the smoke monster but instead warped into the future to warn Charles Whitmore that he was going to kill his daughter in retaliation. I was just a couple episodes off.
Then the finale shows us in detail how the Oceanic 6 got off the island, which less face it was pretty anti climatic. The problem with Lost with all the back and forth in time, even the novice viewer can piece the puzzle together by the time the actual reveal happen. What keeps people coming back is the big plot twists and season four had a decent ones even if everyone thought it was Locke in coffin the day after the third season finale. I was actually holding out for my initial guess in Not-Henry until the moment he walked through the door. Even then I thought maybe it was still him and faked his death.
But it was Locke which of course ended up in the coffin which really puts a wrech in my Charles Whitmore is Future-Locke theory. Of course this, and other parts of the finale, begs these questions:
- What did everyone refer to Locke as Jeremy?
- If Locke has to go back with the 6 to get back on the island, does Walt, Desmond, and the Lawnmower Man have to go back too?
- How and why did Locke get off the island?
- How does Locke die?
- What the frak is up with Claire?
- What the frak is up with Jin?
- What the frak is up with Faraday and the people on his raft?
- What the frak is up with Michael? (I assumed Jack's dad saying you can go now meant he could die. And on that note, why is Jack's dad showing up everywhere?)
- Is there a significance to Sawyer, Michael, and Jin all being in the sea (be it dead or alive) much like the end of the first season?
- What did Sawyer whisper to Kate?
- Why did Miles want to stay?
- What does Sun want with Whitmore?
- What was with the weird octagon commercial thing?
- Why were Boone, Libby, and Charlie selected as the three that died in the Oceanic 6 fake story?
- And most importantly, what the frak is with the feud between Not-Henry and Charles Whitmore?
Ever since his infamous couch jumping episode incident, not only has Tom Cruise’s films underperformed but it has also had a negative affect the reason for the jumping, his wife Katie Holmes. Granted you can argue her lack of being able to put people in theater seats well predates her meeting her husband. First Daughter anyone? Not surprisingly her latest outing tanked at the box office debuting at a meager seventh place.
That is not to say Mad Money (not to be confused with the Jim Cramer television show, which actually makes an appearance) is at all unwatchable. Holmes plays third banana to Diane Keaton (Father of the Bride) who is forced to get a job cleaning toilets at the Federal Reserve Bank when her husband gets fired. There she comes up with a plan to get back to living the upper class lifestyle she is used to by recycling the old and worn money about to be shredded for her own personal use.
As the person actually doing the shredding, Queen Latifah (Bringing Down The House) if the first person she recruits with Holmes entering the fold later. Not to pile on Holmes, but she is the weak link in the trio as the flaky, free spirited character seemed to be more fitted for someone younger and with actual comedic timing.
The movie really shines with its supporting cast. First there is Stephan Root as head of the bank playing a more serious Jimmy James. Ted Danson (Getting Even With Dad) gets plenty of laughs as Keaton’s now unemployed husband. Finesse Mitchell, who Saturday Night Live should bring back to play Barak Obama, gets the most laughs as the guard that hits on every woman that goes through the metal detector. And even my big brother Shooter McGavin makes a way too short appearance.
Unfortunately the movie starts off in the third act, one of my least favorite plot devises, with the main players being arrested before flashing back. But how they pull off the caper still is entertaining despite the miscast Holmes. Still they should have gotten caught well sooner than it happened because the movie ends up going about twenty minutes too long where you just think to yourself, go ahead and caught already.
On their last album, 3 Doors Down dueted with Bob Seger which was fitting because their first two albums were chalk full of tunes that will soon become old time rock and roll. The only problem was that last album was bland; sounding what a 3 Doors Down tribute band may come up with. It may not have helped that the album’s title, Seventeen Days, referred to the amount of time the band took to record that album. It is not much more promising that their latest album is self titled.
With the uninspiring title comes an uninspiring batch of songs that, much like the last album, don’t really deviate at all from what you would expect from the band. You imagine the band sitting around saying, “Okay we need a track for the modern rock stations like Loser,” then write It’s Not My Time. “Alright, how about one for traditional rock stations like Duck and Run,” and out comes Train. “Now we need to slow it down for the adult contemporary charts similar to Be Like That,” and they go and record Let Me Be Myself. “Great, nine more filler songs and we are done.” No wonder it doesn’t take them too long to record.
That is not to say these songs are bad and you certainly will not be changing the station when these songs come on your radio format of choose, but it isn’t a group of songs you really want to listen to all together in one sitting. But you have to wonder what possessed the band to write Citizen/Soldier for the National Guard with the cheesy lyrics about people in the Guard to use in a national campaigned when they should have just co-opted the much stronger Duck and Run would be just as fitting and a much better song to boot.
The closest the band comes to breaking their shell is on Your Arms Feel Like Home that could have become an epic if they crossed that preverbal line. While She Don’t Want the World has a haunting drum that is almost as creepy as their first hit Kryptonite but still could have gone further with the song.
A couple weeks ago I started posted in the morning thanks to the new Blogger advanced scheduling and actually stuck to that for a while, but nothing like a three day weekend and perfect weather to keep me from being inside and writing. Another reason is that Amazon MP3 recently created a cool new widget where you can preview songs like a jukebox, if only in thirty second increments. I am going to start including these with my album reviews so you can actually preview the album while reading my review, you may have seen it in my latest review for Jason Mraz (see Our Name Is Our Virtue). I also created one for my list of the Best Songs of 2005, which you can listen to below. Since not all the songs are available to download through Amazon MP3, click the link to see the entire one hundred songs. I hope to have more of these lists up to date soon and back to morning posting tomorrow.
Big News of the Week: An Old Season Ends, a New One Starts: The last two weeks saw the season/series finales of most every show not named Lost. In the past we would have to wait three months until more new television but about five years ago cable started debuting new series in the summer and now there is plenty to choose from. You can look out for the second seasons of The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys on TBS starting Thursday June 12 at 9:00 and 9:30 respectively. This begs the question, does anyone know when Rescue Me starts up again? Also starting up this summer in the critically acclaimed The Closer, which returns Monday July 14 at 9:00, who was nice to enough to send me this goodie basket:
Note to other shows out there, if you want me to mention you, send food, it will be sure to work.
Coalition Links of the Week: Between Girlfriends, Jericho, Aliens in America and many others, there are plenty of newly canceled shows to mourn. Buzz wants to know: Which one bums you out the most? (BuzzSugar)
This week, Eric wondered how much you would pay to watch your favorite TV show. (Daemon's TV)
Mikey's infatuation with the fourth season of Desperate Housewives lasted until the final two minutes, which he worries might force the series back into a creative coma. (Mikey Likes TV)
Marcia picked the five new shows that you absolutely, positively can afford to miss. (Pop Vultures)
Examining what makes her stick with Heroes despite it's let-down of a second season but drop Brothers & Sisters over a disappointing storyline, Jody wonders what kind of fan you are: fickle or faithful? (RTVW Online)
Vance thought Grey's Anatomy's season finale was rock solid! ABC is doing pretty well with the 2 hour finales so far, no? Desperate Housewives was great, can't wait for Lost now!(Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace put on his Pilot Inspektor cap and reviewed the pilot episodes for several new series, including FOX's new J.J. Abrams drama Fringe ("spellbinding television"), ABC's misguided US adaptation of UK series Life on Mars, and HBO's True Blood. (Televisionary)
Lost's flash-forward, Desperate Housewives' leap in time, Battlestar Galactica's skip to New Caprica -- it seems like more and more shows are shaking up their formats. Dan evaluates the new trend. (TiFaux)
Jennifer vented her anger about the shocking Bones finale, and for those of you who missed it, check out her exclusive interview with One Tree Hill’sJames Lafferty. (Tube Talk)
Take a trip down memory lane with theTVaddict.com's tribute to TV shows that are no longer with us. Yes Moonlight & Men in Trees fans, we're talking to you. (the TV Addict)
Raoul talked with perfect 10 Whitney from America's Next Top Model. (TV Filter)
Check out my season reviews of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory here: This Is Gonna Be Legendary, Wait for it… Dary. But I would just like to add about the past week’s episode that, much like the next Yank, I am all for making fun of Canadians as it is last group where it is socially acceptable to do so, but having Robin call Bruce Springsteen the American Bryan Adams just crossed the line. Maybe I am just overreacting, eh.
Next Week’s Pick: Lost at 9:00 on ABC: Of course this is by default as Lost is the only thing on next week. For those that want to see the entire three hour finale in its entirety, the first part is re-airing at 8:00. I can’t say I have high hopes as the first season finale was excruciatingly boring, the second was head scratchingly bad, and the third was shaping up as boring as the first if it wasn’t for the mind blowing reveal of the flashforward. I sure it is safe to assume in the fourth season finale we won’t get enough answers for it to be satisfying.
There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
What is sad is that I was going to blast the latest Weezer video since Barenaked Ladies already did the internet phenomenon video until I realized that there has been so many new cross over sensations in the year since that video there really not much over lap. And I didn’t realize how attractive Miss South Carolina was when she wasn’t talking. But the Leave Britany Alone guy needs go back to obscurity and stay there.
Mercy is a nice upbeat throwback. The latest from Duffy is simple and effective, the song and the video. I am very close to putting her above Amy Winehouse in the latest import category.
Speaking of which the latest is Adele who, see if this sounds familiar, is a big hit in her native England, has a retro yet modern feel and is Mark Ronson approved. Nonetheless, a cool looking video, but are there any British people out there can explain what Chasing Pavement means to a Yank?
Download some of these somgs DRM free at Amazon MP3:
For those that may not have picked up on it, I have a mild case of Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. Basically if my daily routine is change even slightly it totally ruins my whole day. My afternoon routine goes as followed:
4:30 - Tape Jim Rome Is Burning 5:00 - Watch Hardball with Chris Matthews while start cooking dinner 5:30 - Watch Pardon the Interruption while eating dinner 6:00 - Watch Jim Rome Is Burning until the big finish of PTI is back on Sportscenter then walk the dogs
So Monday I get a call from my cousin who had some extra tickets to that night’s baseball game so I fire up my Time Warner Cable box and notice instead of the yellow TV Guide, it is now blue with a completely new interface and it takes two second between when I press the remote and when the screen actually moves. Yeah. For those that do not have the same thing I do let me explain how easy it is to record something. You go to the show you want to record, press the select button on the remote, it asks you if you want to record this show, then press select again. Viola, that’s it. Simple right? All you have to remember is to leave the VCR on.
So I set PTI, Sportscenter, How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory to record, but instead of asking me if I wanted to record these shows when I selected them, it asked if I wanted to set a reminder which I figure was the same thing. Well I get home from the game to check up on the days biggest sports stories and the funniest show on television only to hit the rewind button to find that there was nothing to rewind because nothing taped. Being the rational person that I am, after yelling a few obscenities at the screen, I decided to sleep on it and see what is up with this new screen the next day.
Then on Tuesday I manually taped Jim Rome, hitting the record button at 4:30, before going back to what I was doing previously. Later I figured Jim Rome didn’t tape because this new screen wiped out my scheduled tapping, I have the show set to record weekdays, so I check out the new options menu, including the two seconds it tapes for the screen to move from when I hit the remote, only to find you can no longer do this anymore. While going through the menu there was a commercial taking about their website for the new screen, mytwcnavigator.com. When I get there and finally find the how to record part of the guide, it tells me go to the show, select it, scroll to Record Series. The only problem is that there is not a Record Series option when I do this on my television. Apparently I am not the only one that is not having this problem because this FAQ page ranks a 1.4 out of 5.
Then on Wednesday I did what I was dreading to do since Monday, call customer service. I tell all of the above to the first English as a second language guy I talk to and he says that everything looks right on his end and he will have to talk to his supervisor. When he come back he tells me that I do not have a DVR (like I didn’t know that) and asks me if I would like him to transfer me ordering guy to sign up for a DVR. I asked if it cost anything, to which he responded five dollars a month. I followed that up with why would I pay that for something my VCR does for free, let me talk to this supervisor of yours.
Onto my second English as a second language guy who apparently wants me go through my whole story again leading me to believe he is not the previous guy supervisor, just another tech guy poising as a tech guy. His conclusion, you need to call your VCR manufacturer to see why it is not working. To which I respond that is does work, it records when I hit the record button, it just doesn’t record when I set the program guide.
This “call the VCR manufacturer/it isn’t the VCR” argument goes about five rounds before I calmly shout obscenities and now dude suggests that I change my box, something he actually had to do because his VCR wasn’t compatible with the old box and new software (which begs the question why did we waste five minutes on calling the VCR manufacturer when he had the same problem). I know there is a Time Warner Cable store in town but I ask for the address so I don’t have to look it up myself. Apparently the closest store with this box is twenty miles away. I say great, you want to reimburse the gas it will take me to drive the forty miles I am going to have to drive to get a box? Surprisingly he said no, in fact I am not getting credited for any of my inconvenience.
Sometime during my conversation I mentioned that everything I needed the box to did it on Sunday, why don’t you just upload the old software. Well apparently the brain trust at Time Warner Cable deleted the old software before working out all the kinks in the new software. And in all of this, my cable box has a new light on it, which is labeled bypass, which has never been on in the years I have had these cable boxes. Dude tells me that shouldn’t be on, and shouldn’t a picture, yet I do.
So instead of driving way out of my way to get a box that may or may not work, we decide to have someone come out to my house to hook up a new box. Next Thursday. So if I am overtly cranky, even more so than usually, you have Time Warner Cable to that because they will be messing up my daily routine for the next week.
That is unless I decide to switch to DirecTV so I do not have to deal with TWC ever again. And get to watch Friday Night Lights in the fall instead of having to wait until winter.
One song I was listening a lot to last month was Someday We'll All Be Free by Donny Hathaway. Hathaway (no relation to Anne) is a lost gem of seventies soul that has seemed to not get the credit he deserves despite the string of hits that decade. But some of the biggest artist of today list him as an influence and he even got named dropped by Amy Winehouse when she said she would rather stay at home with Mr. Hathaway than go to rehab. And I utilized Alicia Keys version of the song in my fifth anniversary of 9/11 post. But everyone should have the original in there collection somewhere.
Recently I read an article calling How I Met Your Mother this decade’s Friends to which laughed at. Then I thought about it and realized the write was on to something, a show that had a solid first season that started going downhill when the characters started hooking up with each other. I usually trace the shark jumping moment to when the hot baker chick went off to France, but the show really started to lose its bearings in the second season when they spent the whole year focusing on the Ted/Robin coupling when we already knew that she was not the mother.
But that relationship thankfully ended at the end of last season, thus getting us back to Ted’s search for the mother mentioned in the title. We were teased early of the woman with the yellow umbrella(ella-ella-eh-eh-eh) that would end up being the mother. That umbrella even shows up at a bar later in the season, but it was almost as if the writers forgot all about it when they were too busy picketing.
Which makes the cliffhanger excruciatingly bad. You have either two scenarios; the writer completely dropped the umbrella thing (or will cheesily add it later) and Stella turned out to be the Mother (which adds another continually problem because if that makes her daughter the chick in the future, her brother would be much younger than her); or Future Ted just insanely not only spent way too much time telling his kids about his lengthy sex life with Aunt Robin, he also told them he proposed to some chick that isn’t their mother. Certainly Barney’s inevitable courtship of Robin next season will not be legendary.
Much less frustrating was the first season of The Big Bang Theory which transformed from a bland, and borderline insulting to those of us with triple digit IQ’s, to the funniest show on television. And of course educational, am assuming I am not the only one to go straight to Wikipedia after the finally to read up on Schrodinger's Cat. And there in lies the genius of Sheldon Cooper, and I am not even referring to his IQ.
Sheldon always had the right thing to say all season, even when his lack of a filter wouldn’t stop him when it wasn’t the right thing to say. The ying and yan with him and Penny may be the best duo on television as each is a worth foil for the other and I would be content if the show was just them. Think about the best moments from the first season and a large proportion involve the two together: Sheldon being sick, shopping for a birthday present, Penny the whole cat discussion. In fact it is hard to compile the best of the other character with only Raj’s failing to ask out Sheldon’s twin only coming to mind.
I am not sure who I feel about the season ending with the cat not being alive. I really do not see a Penny/Leonard coupling working out (see the above two examples of a show falling apart when the characters start hooking up). I am really hoping that the date is disastrous and the two decide to stay friends while Sheldon has to analyze why his theory didn’t work. But what I really hope for is no Britany Spears sightings.
There is no artist that is more hit or miss than Jason Mraz. He creates these annoying pseudo raps that he surely thinks are clever but get old quick. But he also makes really heartfelt love songs that you cannot help but sing along. And it is odd that he would name We Dance, We Sing, We Steal Things when he isn’t really known for two of the three.
It doesn’t take too long to figure out where the first part comes from as the opening track Make it Mine sounds like a long lost track of a rock band trying out that new disco thing in the seventies. A couple tracks later, Butterfly bust outs with horns straight from the Ohio Players handbook.
The We Sing portion on the album is highlighted by I’m Yours, the quintessential fireside ditty that is easily the best of his career and should be played at every beach this summer. The other standout is the heartbreaking slid guitar aided Love for a Child, a song seen through the eyes of a kid whose parent are divorced debating the pro (having two birthday cakes, less rules) and cons (loss of innocence, drug addled parents) of the split.
Mraz brings along two friends on the album, most notably is the bubbly girl herself Colbie Caillat on Lucky that could have been easily a leftover from her album as it is simple and enjoyable as anything on her disk, but nothing extraordinary. Later on the album James Morrison pops up on Details in the Fabric where the two voices really play off each other well with the backdrop of a haunting acoustic guitar.
Unfortunately that pseudo rap does show up on The Dynamo of Volition with silly lyrics about Gun n’ Roses finally finishing their album and blisters from playing Nintendo. And there is a weird answering machine type message that bleeds into and out of Details in the Fabric. But for the most part Mraz is on the right track with this album.
This week I watched four hours of prime time television which is exactly the amount of Survivor I watched last week. I guess there is the writer’s strike to thank for that because many show just disappeared never to be seen again, or at least next fall. Maybe it is because of that strike that there is much less fan fare to the upfronts this week, you can also thank NBC who announced their line up last month. And maybe the strike is to thank for the less than interesting new shows, a list even less interesting than last year, with only one piquing my interest. But anyways. Here is what I’ll be watching next fall:
At the beginning of last year I thought that Chuck would be the one to out nerd the boys of The Big Bang Theory, but thanks to Sheldon it looks like I’ll be watching the CBS comedies live with Chuck saved to Tuesday. Granted if Heroes continues to be excruciatingly painful to watch, I may end up watching Chuck at that time. But all the scripted television will have to be put on hold when the Cleveland Browns, who got the max number of night games, play their first Monday Night Football game in over a decade.
I haven’t watched primetime television on Tuesday since Veronica Mars went off the air. And to be honest I may not technically watch it again this year because 10:00 is past my bedtime, but being the most improved show of the year getting better each episode, Eli Stone will be worth watching a day late. Now if only they would sign Dr. Abbott as a regular.
Just three years ago I watch more television on Thursday than every other night combined; now I’m just down to an hour and a half, an hour less than I’ll be watching on Friday’s. Not that I’m complaining, as it actually give me time to actually productive in real life.
Fridays 8:00 - Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) 9:00 - Friday Night Lights (DirecTV in the fall; NBC in the winter) 9:00 - The Ex-List (CBS)
My sister recently moved and I told her that she should go with DirecTV for her television provider so she could tape Friday Night Lights for me, but alas she went with cable instead. Punk. So if there is anyone in Northeast Ohio with DirecTV, please shout me a holla.
Saturdays, Sundays
I got nothing aside from when the Browns play on Sunday Night Football.
In my schedule above I didn’t talk about the new shows because I wanted to go more into depth here in my preseason top five:
1. The Goode Family (ABC): The latest animated show from the dude who brought us Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill set for midseason. Yep Mike Judge voices the head of a family of do-gooders. Speaking of Judge who also does extremely hilarious live action movies Office Space and Idocrasy, be on the look out for Extract starring Jason Bateman which will also be out next sometime year.
2. The Ex-List (CBS): All you really need to know about The Ex-List is that it is produced by Diane Ruggiero who wrote some of the best episodes of Veronica Mars, which is saying a lot. It also co-stars Rachel Boston of American Dreams fame. What makes me skeptical is that it is about a woman (Elizabeth Reaser) who has a year to find her soulmate, which happened to be someone she already dated, or she will be alone forever. Which begs the question, what happens in the second season?
3. I Love Money (VH1): I get typically get physically ill whenever I flip by Flavor of Love, Rock of Love of I Love New York, but thoroughly enjoyed Flavor of Love School Girls: Charm School and openly hoped they would do another season pitting them against Bret Michael and/or New York castoffs. Well someone over at VH1 must read the 9th Green because they just announced an elimination style show with physical and mental challenges including my boy Midget Mac.
4. Project Gary (CBS): This may be a episode by episode thing because it doesn’t seem that interested but does star Paula Marshall (Cupid) and Jay Mohr (Action).
5. Dollhouse (FOX): This should be higher on the list, but it got bumped to the bottom because I won’t be watching it. I won’t be watching it of course because it won’t last a month. For an extended reason why I won’t be watching Dollhouse check out Fool Me Once, Shame on Me; Fool Me Ten Times…
Speaking of Cupid and Veronica Mars, I noticed that it, along with the other Rob Thomas produced Good Behavior, were conspicuously missing from the ABC schedule. But anyways. For a complete grid of next fall television check out Ain’t it Cool News. You can also watch clips of the new shows here.
(NBC)
(ABC)
movie? Is this a remake?
, he looked like Fabio with a nose job in a bad wig that vaguely looked like the bad guy’s hair from that movie.
lost to a movie I never heard of in the Best Fight? Has anyone else heard of the movie?
, complete with Garth. Naturally when talking about Garth’s nether regions, a shot of Paris Hilton, and talk of Tila Tequila going both ways, a shot of Lindsay Lohan.
wins Best Movie. I really need to stop watching this crap.
, could be the worst film adaptation with only 
able to jump in that argument. . Maybe not so ironically both fantasy movies had plotlines where the protagonists came to Earth. But anyways. Sadly it looks like they are going to try a new live action version in the new future. And the toys really only live on today in jokes about certain starlets of today and their resemblance to Skeletor.
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on my 
anyone? Not surprisingly her latest outing tanked at the box office debuting at a meager seventh place.
) who is forced to get a job cleaning toilets at the Federal Reserve Bank when her husband gets fired. There she comes up with a plan to get back to living the upper class lifestyle she is used to by recycling the old and worn money about to be shredded for her own personal use.
) if the first person she recruits with Holmes entering the fold later. Not to pile on Holmes, but she is the weak link in the trio as the flaky, free spirited character seemed to be more fitted for someone younger and with actual comedic timing.
. Ted Danson (
) gets plenty of laughs as Keaton’s now unemployed husband. Finesse Mitchell, who Saturday Night Live should bring back to play Barak Obama, gets the most laughs as the guard that hits on every woman that goes through the metal detector. And even my big brother 
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on my 
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on my 
to which laughed at. Then I thought about it and realized the write was on to something, a show that had a solid first season that started going downhill when the characters started hooking up with each other. I usually trace the shark jumping moment to when the hot baker chick went off to France, but the show really started to lose its bearings in the second season when they spent the whole year focusing on the Ted/Robin coupling when we already knew that she was not the mother.
went off the air. And to be honest I may not technically watch it again this year because 10:00 is past my bedtime, but being the most improved show of the year getting better each episode, Eli Stone will be worth watching a day late. Now if only they would sign Dr. Abbott as a regular.