Whenever I watch a horror movie, my mind always seems to wonder to one thought: “This would be much better if there zombies in it.” The of course the next thing in my brain is, “and what if those zombies were Nazis: how cool would that be?” Leave it to those nutty Norwegians to put that idea to film. Yes, Nazi Zombies in living color (bad pun intended) for Død snø or Dead Snow for us English speakers.
Of course the drawback to a Norwegian film is that the cast speaks Norwegian and you are stuck the whole film reading. But on the plus side: there’s fracking Nazi Zombies! The story follows five co-eds who are spending their Easter vacation at a cabin up in the hills of Norway for a film marathon and snowy fun. That is until a creepy old dude invites himself in for some coffee and proceeds to call the kids stupid for coming to such a place without knowing its history. Yet he never explains why he is traveling alone in the same place. But who cares about a trivial plot point because there are Nazi Zombies!
Basically the old dude is only there to tell our protagonists why they are about to get attacked by Nazi Zombies. Once the Nazi Zombies infest there are plenty of horrifically funny death scenes to make Sam Raimi proud (Evil Dead even gets a shout out). If we are lucky, if there is ever an English remake of the film, hopefully Raimi is involved. And of course there is a gratuitous use of a chainsaw, a chainsaw to saw Nazi Zombies in half. Horror just doesn’t get better than that. Even if you are like me and hate reading especially when watching television, you will still want to pick up Dead Snow (which I think the only way you will be able to get a hold of in the United States is through Blockbuster). But did I mention there are Nazi Zombies?!
When I decided I was going to lists to commemorate the greatest of the decade, I knew it was going to be hard as I already put way too much thought into my end of the year ones. But The 100 Greatest Television Shows was relatively harmless as the top ten was pretty obvious for the most part and I didn’t even quibble very much with the other ninety. Then I started trying to rank the greatest characters from the decade. Really anyone I listed in the top ten could have been a worthy number one. And of the five different trial runs I made, I had some characters move sixty different places from list to list. And some of the lists from here on out will be just as hard if not harder. So look out for a new Greatest of the 00’s list coming sometime next month (especially for all the dudes out there). Until then, here is a breakdown of The 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00’s.
Shows with Multiple Characters Friday Night Lights – 8 Lost – 7 Chuck – 7 Arrested Development – 6 Rescue Me – 6 Veronica Mars – 6 Ed – 5 Greek – 4 Knights of Prosperity – 4 Angel – 3 Everwood – 3 Everybody Hates Chris – 3 Firefly – 3 My Name Is Earl – 3 Pushing Daisies – 3 The Big Bang Theory – 3 Castle – 2 Dead Like Me – 2 Deadwood – 2 Rome – 2 Smallville – 2
Characters by Original Network NBC – 27 ABC – 18 FOX – 12 UPN – 10 WB – 8 CBS – 6 FX – 6 ABC Family – 5 HBO – 4 Showtime – 3 TNT – 1
Actors Who Appear Multiple Times Adam Baldwin (John Casey, Jayne Cobb) Nathan Fillion (Mal Reynolds, Rick Castle) Ian McShane (Al Swearengen, Benjamin Silas)
99. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D - The Big Bang Theory
100. Harold Brighton "Bright" Abbott - Everwood
(Scooter’s Note: Only characters that were introduced and featured for at least one full season between September 1999 and August 2009 were eligible for this list. For a complete breakdown on the list, check out Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Television Characters of the 00's.)
Tool Academy: Charm has become this season’s Shawn who inexplicably manages to make it one more week even though he was one of the biggest tools from week one. You can stream recent episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.
Greek: Oh crap, they really are going to reignite the Cappie / Casey / Evan love triangle. Hopefully they graduate and all that happens off screen. And let’s face it, trading Olivia Munn for Casey = downgrade even if she is a slacker. At least Dale passing out Bible study fliers at the strip club was pretty funny You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.
The Big Bang Theory: Wow, Sheldon lost at something again. First he incorrectly guessed the cricket and then he loses to the Star Trek dude and on purpose. I cannot wait to see what revenge Sheldon has up his sleeve because you know some is coming (assuming the guy is willing to guest star again, but really, what does he have going on). You can download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Castle: I really didn’t understand that if the arrangement was for one book, why did Beckett let Castle stick around after the book was written and not wait until it was published conclude their arrangement. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes. Also be sure to check out my chat with Stana Katic.
Sons of Anarchy: It’s surprising that Tom Everett Scott doesn’t get more screen time as SAMCRO’s lawyer. And I know he is sans an eye, but were was Otto while everyone else was in the Big House? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.
Mercy: Is the doctor really going to let Ronnie off the hook for putting a cinder block through his car just because his mail order bride died? And do firemen really get called to such calls like breaking and entering? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mercy on iTunes.
Modern Family: Nothing like a swim in the pool with your clothes on to wash away all your family drama. Alighty. As funny as Al Bundy asking his gay son’s boyfriend if he found him attractive, the episode seriously needed another song from Dylan. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.
Survivor: Samoa: After the last two episodes, it got me thinking, at what point are the elements so bad do the suspend the game? Is there an amount of rainfall, a certain temperature where they step in? And I was surprised they didn’t go ahead with tribal as planned because when the other dude dropped out, they still had to vote someone out. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.
Quote of the Week: My mother calls me at work to see if I had a healthy bowel movement. (Howard – The Big Bang Theory)
Song of the Week: Up All Night – Slaughter (Greek)
Big News of the Week: Um: Since I have no desire to talk about the balloon boy (except to ask why is this breaking news when we have two wars going on, massive unemployment, etc?) I got nothing this week.
Free Download of the Week: Pilot – Modern Family (iTunes): If you have somehow missed the best new show of the fall, you can check up on the first episode at least to see why it is the best.
Video of the Week: In a story I broke yesterday, this year Halloween falls on the weekend (next Saturday to be exact) and me and the Geto Boys will be trick or treating, robbing little kids for bag. If you didn’t get that what should be an obvious pop culture reference, check out the video below:
Next Week Pick of the Week: Friday Night Lights, Wednesday at 9:00 on DirecTV: It pains me to write this considering I may have to wait until summer to see the new season unless I can find someone closer to New Jersey to invite me over every Wednesday for the next thirteen week. If not, I am going into FNL shutdown until NBC airs it to avoid any spoilers. But seriously, if you are in the Northeast Ohio area and have DirecTV, shout me a holla.
Also be on the look out next week for my latest Greatest of the 00's list.
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 Trauma, Community, Stargate Universe, and The League.
- Trauma is slowly getting its footing, which is of course too slow. But there is nothing like a Halloween episode to kick start a show because like the holiday itself, anything can happen. And since this year Halloween falls on the weekend, I think me and the Geto Boys are going to go trick or treat and robbing little kids for bags. But anyways. Here is a behind the scene look at Monday’s Trauma:
I am not entirely sure about The League, the new FX comedy debuting Thursday, October 29th at 10:30, because from the previews I am not sure if the show will be laughing at me or laughing with me as an avid fantasy sports player. Check out a preview below to see if you can figure it out:
Kristania DeBarge has a lot to live up to. Yes the last name is courtesy of her father James who was part of the eighties group that brought us the theme song to Short Circuits. Then her debut album Exposed was produced by nineties uber-producer Babyface who also wrote four songs for the album. With that lineage, Exposed is a little disappointing.
The album just sounds like every other album from other cookie cutter R&B pop acts of the past couple years like Jordin Sparks and the like getting the scraps that Rihanna pass on. Debarge even tries to do for Steam’s Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye for her Goodbye what Rihanna did for Tainted Love on S.O.S. to lesser effect (it also doesn’t help that Wale and Jay-Z also decided to co-opt the same song this year). And it doesn’t help that Ryan Tedder contribute a track because Speak Up doesn’t help his rap that he basically only has one song that he recycles to ever artist he works with to the point you can understand why Kelly Clarkson was so upset.
Even the Babyface songs like Cried Me a River come off a little too smaltzy and too overproduced making you wish of the days when ‘face could do no wrong but that was over a decade ago. He does manage to take us back to when Kristinia’s father ruled the charts on the throwback It’s Got to Be Love which borrows from I Need Love from LL Cool J.
But on the bright side, the album is good clean fun for the tween set who are looking for something edgier than the Magic Kingdom is exporting and not ready for the oversexualized music that plagues R&B radio these days. Anyone one in that age bracket will be more than happy to sing along to songs like Goodbye, Future Love and Doesn’t Everybody Want to Fall in Love.
If there was one reason to pick up the Reality Bites soundtrack it was because my favorite U2 song All I Want Is You is among the track listing (keep in mind this was long before iTunes or even Napster). And with all due respect to the breakout star amongst the great eighties tunes, Lisa Loeb, the second standout track on the album was Spin the Bottle, a quick jolly romp reminiscent of the great middle school days when the spinning the bottle was the way to tell someone you liked them long before Vanessa Hudgens discovered a cell phone.
During the Halloween season, there is one movie I go back to for a good scare, and a few laughs thrown in for good measure, and that is the Evil Dead Trilogy (okay that is three, but who’s counting). Unfortunate the creative mind behind those movies Sam Raimi has been too busy playing with boys in tights the last decade to do anything in the horror genre this decade until he squeaked one in at the end with Drag Me to Hell.
First off, Bruce Campbell who was the lead in the Evil Dead movies and cameos in all three Spider-Man movies as three different characters, is absent from the film. But other than that, Drag Me to Hell is pure Sam Raimi. The unexpected laughs throughout the movie jump up as much as the unsuspecting scary parts that horror movies are known for, although Raimi may have gone with one too many false endings.
The movie centers around Alison Lohman (Big Fish), a sweet loan officer who decides to get a backbone at the wrong time. Promotion time is right around the corner and after her boss says to get it, she will start to have to make the tough decisions which leads to Lohman to decline a frail old lady (perfectly portrayed by Lorna Raver with an assist to the great makeup artist who turned her that way) a third extension on her mortgage tossing her on the street. Wrong decision.
In retaliation, Raver puts a curse on Lohman where a demon named the Lamia would harass her for three days before, well, dragging her to hell, naturally. And as dramatized in the prologue, this is definitely not something you want to partake in. Along for the rise I the surprisingly straight man Justin Long (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) as Lohman loyal boyfriend who stays by her despite actually believing that she is being cursed and an eventful dinner with his parents who meet Lohman for the first time.
Drag Me to Hell might not be the scariest horror movie you will see (it is only PG-13) but for Raimi that is not the point as a full entertainment experience is what he wants to give you and that is what you get with this movie. And now that he has dipped his toe back in the genre, hopefully more adventures of Ash are not far behind.
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.
I wasn’t too fond when I first heard the new John Mayer song. It just sounded like a mash up of Stop This Train and In Your Atmosphere. And I still pretty much still feel that way but then I discovered the lyric “It’s been a long time since twenty-two” which has hit a little close to home lately. And if I do my math correctly, twenty-two is around the time he sang about wanting to ruin through the halls of his high school.
Fifteen – Taylor Swift
Speaking of songs that take you back to a certain age, so does the new Taylor Swift. But for me it isn’t back to time the title refers to but back to eighteen when I was a senior trying to pick up those freshmen girls. Fun times.
even gets a shout out). If we are lucky, if there is ever an English remake of the film, hopefully Raimi is involved. And of course there is a gratuitous use of a chainsaw, a chainsaw to saw Nazi Zombies in half. Horror just doesn’t get better than that. Even if you are like me and hate reading especially when watching television, you will still want to pick up Dead Snow (which I think the only way you will be able to get a hold of in the United States is through Blockbuster). But did I mention there are Nazi Zombies?!![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
![Terror Alert Level: Guarded [BLUE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCbHfExiuXqojow1zxkBUX6j-9BHg9IyrfzqR77jnja2Xq6dbv-7iiqMFzp_UKXGcUF9FyAHqCkNxa5uitXa5Xu2Q1OboN9-TLjsaeI1a2eoGLORU4vkTQ54l1C-_cZyn81QHyQ/s400/small_guarded.png)
on my 
movies as three different characters, is absent from the film. But other than that, Drag Me to Hell is pure Sam Raimi. The unexpected laughs throughout the movie jump up as much as the unsuspecting scary parts that horror movies are known for, although Raimi may have gone with one too many false endings.
), a sweet loan officer who decides to get a backbone at the wrong time. Promotion time is right around the corner and after her boss says to get it, she will start to have to make the tough decisions which leads to Lohman to decline a frail old lady (perfectly portrayed by Lorna Raver with an assist to the great makeup artist who turned her that way) a third extension on her mortgage tossing her on the street. Wrong decision.
) as Lohman loyal boyfriend who stays by her despite actually believing that she is being cursed and an eventful dinner with his parents who meet Lohman for the first time.