Television

My wife and I have been working our way quickly through season one of 30 Rock.  Simply brilliant.  30 Rock strikes me as the kind of show that I could find good reasons not to like:

1. Lots of big stars (including Alec Baldwin playing an obnoxious, wealthy Republican)

2. Yet another SNL derivative/homage

3. Product of the ever-annoying NBC “Must-See Thursday” hype machine.

But it works!  Tina Fey and the other writers do a great job of ridiculing everything.  And Baldwin steals every scene he’s in (in a good way).

I think it’s (gasp!) funnier than The Office.  Five Stars.

I guess we all have our own reasons for why we love Arrested Development so much. But I think my reason is somewhat unique.

As you may know (unless someone who doesn’t know me is reading this site, which I do not assume), I recently had a baby. In fact, I am typing this one-handed while she rests on my other arm. What, you wonder, does this have to do with the best comedy in TV history?

AD has played a minor but significant role throughout my baby experience. Early on, everything made me feel nauseous, and nearly everything I ate, did, or watched carried the taint of queasiness even after I felt better. Even now, every time the subject of McDonalds cheeseburgers comes up in conversation, I kind of gag a little.

Except for AD. I watched it a lot during this time because it made me laugh and feel semi-human, and never once made me want to puke. The gift of not wanting to puke is almost the greatest gift anyone can give a first-trimester mom.

AD was also there for us at the hospital. We brought Season 2 with us to watch during our stint in the maternity ward — we didn’t actually watch it, but it was nice to know it was there if we needed it. And watching AD was almost the first thing we did when we got her home — hope she wasn’t too traumatized. And, it’s helping us keep our grip as exhaustion and post-partum depression make overtures toward interfering with the fun of taking care of our daughter.

Maybe I’ll send a birth announcement and note of thanks to Mitch Hurwitz, or somebody. But I probably won’t. At least not until I’ve finished the thank you notes to our actual friends and family who have yet to receive an acknowledgment of their generosity.

I do, however, fully intend to thank the AD people in the acknowledgments in my dissertation, should that project ever come to completion. At least nobody in their right mind could ever refer to the U of C as a “new age feel-goodery.”

It’s too early to accurately rate this show, given that there are a lot of (positive or negative) directions that they can go with it. That said, I really got a kick out of the pilot episode. It’s playful feel, combined with smooth-talker narration and a slight fantasy-land atmosphere was soothing and engaging.

The story is a bit odd, but unique and fun once it settles in. I’m not sure how much interesting material they can drive off of the initial storyline setup, but I figure to watch to find out.

Anybody else watch the pilot? Thoughts?

Check out these three clips of bits that Philip Glass composed for Sesame Street. When I watched them yesterday, I immediately remembered loving them as a kid, and they’re just as good (if not better) now. I have to assume some sort of embedded memory of those is part of the reason the scores from Mishima and Kundun resonated so much with me.

Here’s one of the clips, and they’re all linked above:

I hope Sesame Street still has stuff this good.

Via your daily awesome (via mefi)

While Googling around for a particular Ghostbusters quote this evening, I came across a presence I’d not felt since… well, since childhood: The Real Ghostbusters, a Saturday morning cartoon that I watched religiously as a kid. It was fun to come across this cartoon again–I couldn’t believe how deeply the show’s opening credits were stored away in my memory, but it all came rushing back.

Anyway, by far the most interesting episode of the show was called “The Collect Call of Cathulhu” (sic), and it’s chock full of references to unspeakable Lovecraftian monsters and dread manuscripts. Sit back and enjoy:

There’s all sorts of fun references to various Lovecraft stories in there that I never would’ve picked up on as a kid. Although I’ve always thought of Great Cthulhu as being, well, green in color. But the red-colored Cthulhu is still pretty scary. Good thing he’s easily tricked into coming near the roller coaster there at the end. (Oops, big spoiler there.)

And since I’m not likely to post about Ghostbusters again in the near future, this is as good a time as any to point out this brilliant NIN mashup. Enjoy.

The Lady Vendar and I have embarked upon 24 (finally). We charged through season 1, and while it wasn’t the best thing we’ve ever seen on TV, it hooked us enough to keep watching, and we’re a few episodes in to season 2 (and it’s already much better).

When watching a whole series, I’ve gotten into the habit (addiction?) of following the series along over at Television Without Pity. If you haven’t been there, and if you enjoy TV, I strongly recommend going there. The recappers vary in quality and consistency, but so far the 24 recaps have been pure gold.

(I’m intentionally not linking to specific episode or show recaps, as pretty much everything on TWOP contains spoilers. I’m getting good at clicking through to a show and then either unfocusing my eyes or hyperfocusing on the “choose a season” dropdown (ignoring the spoiler-ridden episode summaries), then scrolling through another page of spoiler-ridden summaries while holding my hand over the screen to prevent accidental reading, until I’ve found the episodes I’ve seen. It’s quite something. Anyway.)

As an example of what makes TWOP great, here’s a very mildly spoiler-y excerpt from the recap for Season 2, Episode 4. Recappers tend to assign nicknames to most characters in a show; sometimes the nicknames come from forum members, sometimes the recappers pick them, but generally they’re funny:

[…] Although I think it would be really great if they dispensed with the super-serious minimalist opening and tacked on an old-school credits sequence with all these action shots strung together while the theme plays: an orchestral pop instrumental layered with modern “wa-wa” guitar sequences. There’d be this cheesy announcer going, “Starring, Kiefer Sutherland…as Jack!” and you’d see Kiefer whirling around in an office chair to face the camera and give it the Kiefer-sex-glance and a thumbs-up as a twenty-something assistant in a short skirt hands him a latte. “And Elisha Cuthbert as Kim…” and you’d see Elisha bending to pick her cell phone up off the floor. She answers it and smiles. “And Special Guest Star Penny Johnson Jerald as Sherry Palmer…” Lady Mac [ed: aka Lady MacPalmer, aka Pres. Palmer’s wife] puts her hand on her hip and gives the camera a sassy wink. “And Sara Gilbert as Paula…” and Paula spills coffee on herself all Brenda Morganstern-style, sighs, and gives the camera a good-natured smile. Then there’d be this cheesy theme song sung by Tom Jones or Shirley Bassey, and the lyrics would have nothing to do with the plotline. “You’ve got twenty-hours to prove your-self / Twenty-four hours to show them who you aaaaaaahhhhhhh!” while all these shots are shown of Jack running, Spawn [ed: aka Spawn Of Kiefer, aka Kim] running while braless, guns being drawn, cars going off the road, Palmer doing something presidential, and the whole CTU gang having some after-work drinks and toasting Soul Patch [ed: aka Tony Almeda]. And there’d be all these psychedelic graphics everywhere and a big mushroom cloud finale shot. “…Twenty-four hours to show them you’re a staaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” Oh God, they’ve got to do this.

If you do become a TWOP reader, be warned that it will take much of your time and when you finish one recap you’ll want to read just one more… then just one more after that… Kind of like those Entenmann’s chocoloate frosted donuts. Man those things are good.

I don’t get HBO (or cable for that matter), but I caught a new show “Flight of the Conchords” in a hotel this week.  (Am I totally late to this party?)  The show is based on a band by the same name.  They are “New Zeeland’s fourth most popular folk-parody group.”

Anyway, their live show includes “Think about it, Think, Think about it“, a song about dealing with the issues, and “The Humans are Dead“, an ode to our future robot overlords.  Here’s a clip of the HBO show.  Not for everybody, but what is?

Cracked.com has compiled their top 20 Hey! It’s That Guy! guys, and I think theirs is a perfectly fine list. They did miss my favorite, though. David Krumholtz is my favorite Hey! It’s That Guy! guy. He wins for me for three reasons:

1. He’s generally memorable in his roles.
2. Despite #1, though, I always have trouble remembering his name.
3. I recently re-watched The Ice Storm and there, amongst all the now well known actors that hit it big after that movie, who should appear but David Krumholtz! Awesome.

I remember becoming aware of the Hey! It’s That Guy! phenomenon while watching movies in high school, and seeing J.T. Walsh (RIP) in every other one (more or less). He was just memorable enough that you know that you’ve seen him before, but never enough that you can remember specifically where. I’m happy to see that he’s made Cracked’s list.

For more, check out Fametracker’s section on the same topic, where they’ve got a lot more info and a lot more guys (and gals).

Thanks to Vendar and his wife, Byzantine and I got to watch the Lost Season 3 finale last night despite our seriously flooded living room. I’m hoping to hear more about what the three of them thought about the show.

It’s hard to know what to say about the finale, except that it was really good. I’ll have to watch it another time or two to really know what ot make of it. But I do have a few speculations/predictions about what all is going on.

Read on at your own risk ... spoilers abound »

My first acquaintance with the Gilmore Girls was as the show which was always on when I tried to tune in to the WB to watch another show that I liked at that time. That other show is probably best forgotten, and it would probably be best if I not admit what it was (but *cough*Roswell*cough*).

It really didn’t look like my type of show–too girly and WB teen-melodrama-ey. But then I started watching it. I tend to be entranced with shows, books, movies, etc. that have me looking up the references they make to others of the above. GG proved to be one of those shows; plus it’s one of those shows that, for me, sort of echo where I am or was in life in some way. True, I’m not a single mom or a genius teenager, but in the family struggles, small victories, and groups of supportive (if excessively quirky) friends reminded me of some of my own issues.

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