Television

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

In which Byzantine and Angry Teti liveblog the latest episode of 24. This week: Josh is nearly kidnapped, the Russians are on the brink of war, and the word “component” is said many, many times.

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

This is what happens when you catch LaKisha’s final performance on American Idol right before Lost (no, I don’t watch AI).

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

Is it just me, or was last night’s Lost exceptionally good? Man, to think I was prepared to write the show off entirely around the mid-season mark.

Actual meaningful plot revelations… more Henry Gale… lots of Dharma Initiative goodness… and, of course, Locke. And a nice dose of random weirdness thrown in for good measure–you know what I’m talking about. Good stuff. I assume that, because of all the storyline-advancing material this episode contained, the next 10 episodes will consist entirely of Charlie flashbacks, Skate make-out scenes, and maybe even the return of Michael so we can all relive the excitement of him yelling “WAAAAAAALLLT!!!” every twenty seconds.

(Don’t worry, I’m already pressuring Angry Teti to post one of her post-episode commentaries.)

I haven’t had much to say about my favorite shows Lost and 24 lately. Lost has gotten really good again, and has wormed its way back into my heart until I’m back at a Season 1 level of enthusiasm for it. I’m really pleased with all the mysteries, the answers we’ve gotten so far, and especially the development of the Locke and Jack characters. I’m less pleased with the amount of screen time devoted to Sawyer and Kate making out, but when it comes out on DVD I’ll be able to skip past that, so it’s all good.

As for 24, well, there’s always next season.

Byzantine sent me this article about plans to end Lost in 2010 after three short seasons of sixteen episodes each. I have mixed feelings about this.

I think the end date is an excellent idea. Much as I’d like to imagine I’ll be watching Lost well into my old age, I don’t think I can handle another X-Files-style degeneration. The writers keep saying, and just said again on the latest official podcast, that the Lost story has a definite endpoint, which is the way it should be.

Three short seasons, though, is kind of annoying. I assume the point of this is to sell 3 more DVD collections instead of two. But those hiatuses (hiatae? hiatii?) are going to be really, really long, and the seasons really short. That might be a little too little parceled out over too much time.

I’m planning on watching anyway, of course. And will probably buy the DVDs too…the likelihood of continued “Skate” dullness notwithstanding.