Rescue Me's Dysfunctional Premiere
The headline for my review of the season six opener of Rescue Me over on CliqueClack TV is: “Rescue Me’s premiere elevated family dysfunction to new heights.” That about sums it up.
As I watched the episode unfold, I absolutely could not believe the antics of the Gavin family. From Uncle Teddy showing up at the bar where he’d shot his nephew four weeks prior as though it was no big deal, Eddy exploiting Tommy’s shooting as a great business/PR move (asking Tommy to lie down in between the chalk outline of his body from where he’d been bleeding on the bar room floor), Janet intentionally poking Tommy in the spot of his gunshot wound, the wild ride Mickey gave Tommy from the hospital, to the boozing Colleen Gavin, I came to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with the Gavin gene pool.
FNL’s Toilet Bowl
Loved the threads touched upon in the most recent episode of Friday Night Lights, "Toilet Bowl:" Julie feared disappointing her mother and failing to live up to her expectations when it came to college. (Julie was less than enthused about her visit to Boston with Tami, who acted as though she'd been added to the Boston College public relations payroll.)
Landry and Jess moved forward with their adorable, awkward budding romance, although it seems as though Vince is still carrying around a piece of Jess’ heart in his back pocket. Luke started turning into a Nurse Jackie/Dr. House drug addict, going through pain medication at such a rapid clip that he had to resort to getting the name of a less than honest doctor in order to score another prescription because the pain in his hip from that ranch accident is still intense.
The two biggest stories of the week: Tim Riggins found his own field of dreams and, after realizing he’s in no position, financially to buy it, figured it'd be worth it to join Billy in an ill-advised, illegal after hours chop shop operation at Riggins Rigs in order to raise the cash to become a property owner. Bad. Move.
And finally, the lowly East Dillon Lions netted their first victory. Huzzah for the Lions.
Have I said lately that I’m particularly enjoying this fourth season of FNL? Seriously.
Army Wives Turned into Working Moms
My pop culture and politics column over on Mommy Tracked this week traced the evolution of the wives on Lifetime’s Army Wives from season one, when only Joan and Roxy had jobs outside the home, to the current season, where all of them are employed, with the exception of Claudia Joy who’s going back to school to complete the law degree she abandoned when she married Michael.
I think Claudia Joy’s transformation from being the helpful, party-throwing, consummate volunteer wife to working alongside her law professor on a case against Fort Marshall has been the most dramatic, followed by EMT Denise and “rookie” cop Pamela Moran, who’s freshly divorced and once again pursuing her career.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Matt Weiner, 'Mad Men' Cast Talk About Show, the New Season, the 'Rules'
In a new video Mad Men creator/writer Matt Weiner, along with cast members, ponder the meaning and impact of the series, as well as its informal "rules" and what viewers can expect in the upcoming fourth season. But alas, no spoilers, no real info about the season -- like when it takes place for example -- other than Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete Campbell, joking that we'll see Don Draper au natural.
An interesting thing about this video was that after Weiner said Mad Men is about "human weakness and impulse," he made an analogy between the characters and criminals who wantonly flout the law and do whatever they want. In the end, however, he said, "Crime doesn't pay." (Former Sopranos writer is he.)
Also of interest, both Weiner and January Jones say that Betty Draper's a woman "who probably shouldn't have had children."
An interesting thing about this video was that after Weiner said Mad Men is about "human weakness and impulse," he made an analogy between the characters and criminals who wantonly flout the law and do whatever they want. In the end, however, he said, "Crime doesn't pay." (Former Sopranos writer is he.)
Also of interest, both Weiner and January Jones say that Betty Draper's a woman "who probably shouldn't have had children."
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
New ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Trailer: Dark and Awash in Grays
The final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is a long slog through a whole lot of somber, frightening darkness, both literal and figurative. Following on the heels of the emotional death of Harry’s mentor and protector, Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (I was so very sad when I read that scene for the first time), there’s not a whole lot of jubilance and celebration to be had in Deathly Hallows as Harry, 17, matured and sought to figure out what needed to be done in order to challenge his nemesis, Lord Voldemort.
But geez, the brand spankin’ new trailer for the film series' two-part finale – part one slated for a November release and part two for July 2011 – is one long image of blacks and grays amid threats, battles galore and sinister Dark Magic. After watching it a couple of times, I’m left wondering if the film’s going to wind up being too dark and violent for my 11-year-old Harry Potter fanatics, who’ve seen all the movies (though my daughter refused to watch Dumbledore die on screen) and who've read the series of books so many times through that I’ve lost count.
What do you think of the trailer?
Monday, June 28, 2010
‘Rescue Me’ Premieres Tuesday, Will You Tune In?
Last we saw of Rescue Me’s Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary), he’d been shot by his grief-stricken Uncle Teddy and lay bleeding on the floor of the underground bar he ran with his firefighter buddies. Not too long beforehand, Tommy -- who’d given up on his hard-earned sobriety -- had been preaching to all comers that they should drink as much alcohol as they wanted, screw AA, Tommy said. However when Teddy’s wife died in a booze-fueled car wreck, Teddy held Tommy responsible for persuading everyone to start drinking again, thus the bar room shooting.
The sixth season premieres Tuesday at 10 on FX and I’m really interested to see what, if any, impact this near-death experience at the hands of his uncle has had on Tommy. If 9/11 rocked Tommy’s life, what would nearly dying do to him? Would there, could there be any real change? I’m doubtful.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of the two FX promos: The first one, “Cradle to Brave,” is a parallel portrait of two boys, one who grows up to be a professional baseball player for the Yankees (Derek Jeter) and the other who becomes New York City firefighter (Tommy Gavin). Something about seeing Jeter slowly drive by after Tommy risked his life to help a colleague out of a burning building, just felt odd to me as Alicia Keys sang “Empire State of Mind.” (Or maybe that’s just my reaction as a Red Sox fan.) Is this some sort of heroic equation, that Jeter gets cheers and accolades while Tommy gets a soot-covered face and is lucky to live to see another day?
The second video is a more traditional promo for the season as the words, “Sometimes you have to die to learn how to live” appear on the screen and Tommy is lectured about how not to let the “bad Karma” get the “upper hand on the good Karma.”
The New York Daily News wrote about the new season by saying that its first four episodes “build on Gavin’s collapse. He is haunted by his cousin’s death [on 9/11] and his own mortality. He’s also suspicious of his firehouse family, though they rallied to help his wife maintain their home when he recovered.”
Of the fifth episode of this season, series creator/writer/star Leary told the paper: “It’s an explosion of everything that’s gone on in Tommy Gavin’s life. It’s the bottoming-out of his alcohol addiction. It slips in time from past to present, constantly back and forth. It’s a really nasty episode. Everybody’s abandoning him.”
Are you looking forward to the sixth season?
The sixth season premieres Tuesday at 10 on FX and I’m really interested to see what, if any, impact this near-death experience at the hands of his uncle has had on Tommy. If 9/11 rocked Tommy’s life, what would nearly dying do to him? Would there, could there be any real change? I’m doubtful.
Meanwhile, I’m not sure what to make of the two FX promos: The first one, “Cradle to Brave,” is a parallel portrait of two boys, one who grows up to be a professional baseball player for the Yankees (Derek Jeter) and the other who becomes New York City firefighter (Tommy Gavin). Something about seeing Jeter slowly drive by after Tommy risked his life to help a colleague out of a burning building, just felt odd to me as Alicia Keys sang “Empire State of Mind.” (Or maybe that’s just my reaction as a Red Sox fan.) Is this some sort of heroic equation, that Jeter gets cheers and accolades while Tommy gets a soot-covered face and is lucky to live to see another day?
The second video is a more traditional promo for the season as the words, “Sometimes you have to die to learn how to live” appear on the screen and Tommy is lectured about how not to let the “bad Karma” get the “upper hand on the good Karma.”
The New York Daily News wrote about the new season by saying that its first four episodes “build on Gavin’s collapse. He is haunted by his cousin’s death [on 9/11] and his own mortality. He’s also suspicious of his firehouse family, though they rallied to help his wife maintain their home when he recovered.”
Of the fifth episode of this season, series creator/writer/star Leary told the paper: “It’s an explosion of everything that’s gone on in Tommy Gavin’s life. It’s the bottoming-out of his alcohol addiction. It slips in time from past to present, constantly back and forth. It’s a really nasty episode. Everybody’s abandoning him.”
Are you looking forward to the sixth season?
Lots O’ New ‘Fresh Start’ ‘Mad Men’ Promos from AMC
AMC just released a whole bunch of new promos for Mad Men’s fourth season – a few of them which had already been posted on YouTube two weeks ago -- emphasizing a “fresh start” for Don, Betty, Roger, Joan, Pete and Peggy.
I continue to wonder whether any of their "starts," or re-starts as the case may or may not be, can REALLY be all that fresh given that all these folks are still tied tightly together, no matter how much they may wish that they weren’t.
I found the promo for Joan – whom the video suggests is disappointed that her marriage to Greg hasn’t turned out to be what she thought it would be – and the one for Peggy – the only positive, hopeful, “Go Peggy go!” one – most intriguing.
Still countin’ down to the July 25 premiere.
To see all the promos, go to the Mad Men site.
I continue to wonder whether any of their "starts," or re-starts as the case may or may not be, can REALLY be all that fresh given that all these folks are still tied tightly together, no matter how much they may wish that they weren’t.
I found the promo for Joan – whom the video suggests is disappointed that her marriage to Greg hasn’t turned out to be what she thought it would be – and the one for Peggy – the only positive, hopeful, “Go Peggy go!” one – most intriguing.
Still countin’ down to the July 25 premiere.
To see all the promos, go to the Mad Men site.
For Still-Disgruntled ‘Lost’ Fans: An Alternate Ending
The video – which is only currently available on the Entertainment Weekly’s site -- possesses just the right amount of snark and sarcasm which is still lurking in the hearts of die-hard fans who were deeply disappointed by the grotesque lack of closure in the series finale.
Image credit: Howitshouldhaveended.com via Entertainment Weekly.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Did Lindelof Tweet a Response to 'Lost' Finale Criticism?
One of the many folks I follow on Twitter is Damon Lindelof, one of the two creators/showrunners/master gurus behind Lost.
As many of you know, the series finale which aired last month was controversial. There were those fans who adored its heavenly conclusion, while others (including yours truly) observed that while it may have been emotionally satisifying, intellectually, it felt like a cop-out because it failed to address some of the series' major questions.
In the weeks leading up to the finale, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said they'd go "radio silent" after the finale was aired.
Then I saw this Tweet today from Lindelof, ostensibly referencing the longest ever Wimbledon match (11+ hours) between Nicolas Manhut and John Isner which finally ended today with Isner prevailing:
"I found the ending of Isner/Mahut satisfying, but wish they had answered more questions."
A response to the criticism of the Lost finale? Hmm, sounds like it to me.
Lindelof's irony aside, I thought his Tweet about the tennis match was almost as good as Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers who Tweeted, "Mahut just didn't want it enough."
As many of you know, the series finale which aired last month was controversial. There were those fans who adored its heavenly conclusion, while others (including yours truly) observed that while it may have been emotionally satisifying, intellectually, it felt like a cop-out because it failed to address some of the series' major questions.
In the weeks leading up to the finale, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said they'd go "radio silent" after the finale was aired.
Then I saw this Tweet today from Lindelof, ostensibly referencing the longest ever Wimbledon match (11+ hours) between Nicolas Manhut and John Isner which finally ended today with Isner prevailing:
"I found the ending of Isner/Mahut satisfying, but wish they had answered more questions."
A response to the criticism of the Lost finale? Hmm, sounds like it to me.
Lindelof's irony aside, I thought his Tweet about the tennis match was almost as good as Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers who Tweeted, "Mahut just didn't want it enough."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Notes on Politics & Pop Culture: Palin & Feminism, 'HawthoRNe' Premieres, Fallon Mocks 'Twilight's' R-Pat Again
Palin & Feminism
I donned my protective gear as soon as I hit “send” and e-mailed my latest Pop Culture and Politics column to my editor at Mommy Tracked. The piece is about the anger expressed by liberal feminists over the fact that conservative women have said they want to call themselves feminists and cultivate a conservative version of feminism, as embodied by Palin’s reference to “Mama Grizzlies.”
Feel free to weigh in over on the site as I assert that having powerful women on the left AND the right running for and holding elected office while embracing the term “feminism” is a good thing for women.
Speaking of “Mama Grizzlies” . . . Republican Nikki Haley, who faced allegations of infidelity and a slur against her Indian-American background, won the South Carolina GOP runoff for the governor’s seat. She will face Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen in the fall. If she won, she'd be her state’s first female governor.
HawthoRNe Season 2 Premiere
I was disappointed with the season two premiere of the TNT drama HawthoRNe starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Alias’ Michael Vartan. The first season was okay – it certainly was no Nurse Jackie – but this season’s premiere does not bode well for the quality of the second season. Not at all.
I reviewed the premiere at CliqueClack TV and expressed hope that episode two of season two will improve.
Jimmy Fallon Mocks R-Pat Again
Yeah, they’re goofy and Jimmy Fallon’s way too old for the role, but his “Robert Pattinson is Bothered” spoof videos (where Fallon pretends to be Twilight heartthrob Pattinson and climbs into a tree to vent about things that bother him) amuse me. This week, Fallon/Pattinson addressed why the World Cup is neither a cup nor representative of the world.
Speaking of Twilight, Jimmy Kimmel is having a Twilight/Eclipse special tonight. The new film premieres next week.
Image credit: TNT.
I donned my protective gear as soon as I hit “send” and e-mailed my latest Pop Culture and Politics column to my editor at Mommy Tracked. The piece is about the anger expressed by liberal feminists over the fact that conservative women have said they want to call themselves feminists and cultivate a conservative version of feminism, as embodied by Palin’s reference to “Mama Grizzlies.”
Feel free to weigh in over on the site as I assert that having powerful women on the left AND the right running for and holding elected office while embracing the term “feminism” is a good thing for women.
Speaking of “Mama Grizzlies” . . . Republican Nikki Haley, who faced allegations of infidelity and a slur against her Indian-American background, won the South Carolina GOP runoff for the governor’s seat. She will face Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen in the fall. If she won, she'd be her state’s first female governor.
HawthoRNe Season 2 Premiere
I was disappointed with the season two premiere of the TNT drama HawthoRNe starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Alias’ Michael Vartan. The first season was okay – it certainly was no Nurse Jackie – but this season’s premiere does not bode well for the quality of the second season. Not at all.
I reviewed the premiere at CliqueClack TV and expressed hope that episode two of season two will improve.
Jimmy Fallon Mocks R-Pat Again
Yeah, they’re goofy and Jimmy Fallon’s way too old for the role, but his “Robert Pattinson is Bothered” spoof videos (where Fallon pretends to be Twilight heartthrob Pattinson and climbs into a tree to vent about things that bother him) amuse me. This week, Fallon/Pattinson addressed why the World Cup is neither a cup nor representative of the world.
Speaking of Twilight, Jimmy Kimmel is having a Twilight/Eclipse special tonight. The new film premieres next week.
Image credit: TNT.
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Evolution of Peggy Olson, in Pictures
Promotional material for Mad Men's fourth season is starting to pop up all over the place.
The latest source is USA Today's Pop Candy blog which ran several still photos from the new season including one startlingly different image of Peggy Olson. This got me to thinking about how much Peggy's changed over the past few seasons, going from Don's brand spankin' new secretary who wasn't sure if she should flirt with him, to the first female copywriter at Sterling Cooper, and to a pivotal member of the new ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce who's having an affair with Duck.
Here's Peggy from season one, fresh from secretarial school:
Peggy looked much different later on in season one:
Peggy, post-promotion (post-baby), in season two, after shedding her extra weight:
Season three's Peggy with a new do:
The new season four photo that I saw on USA Today:
What do you think of this season four Peggy photo? She looks much more business-like, older and more sophisticated than in season one.
The latest source is USA Today's Pop Candy blog which ran several still photos from the new season including one startlingly different image of Peggy Olson. This got me to thinking about how much Peggy's changed over the past few seasons, going from Don's brand spankin' new secretary who wasn't sure if she should flirt with him, to the first female copywriter at Sterling Cooper, and to a pivotal member of the new ad agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce who's having an affair with Duck.
Here's Peggy from season one, fresh from secretarial school:
Peggy looked much different later on in season one:
Peggy, post-promotion (post-baby), in season two, after shedding her extra weight:
Season three's Peggy with a new do:
The new season four photo that I saw on USA Today:
What do you think of this season four Peggy photo? She looks much more business-like, older and more sophisticated than in season one.
Friday Night Lights: In the Bag
I’ve never been a huge fan of Friday Night Lights’ Julie Taylor. I usually find her kind of annoying and whiny. Nonetheless, I felt badly for her in the past episode, “In the Bag,” in the aftermath of her boyfriend of three years, Matt, taking off without a word, except to his family. Never told Julie he was leaving or even said, "Goodbye." Julie was left flailing and floundering and wound up signing up for all manner of school club in an attempt to take her mind off of the fact that she’d been dumped. But it was no use, especially when her heartbreak went painfully on public display where the only solace she found was in her mother's arms.
Loved watching Tinker help Luke and the Cafferty family build the fence to keep the cows safe from thieves so Luke wouldn’t have to stay up until the wee hours of the night working on the fence because his dad couldn’t afford to pay anyone else to help out. (It seems like Luke's parents are among the rare football parents who aren't all insanely crazy about high school football, the anti-McCoys if you will. Joe McCoy was the one who fought Luke's transfer to East Dillon, after all, not Luke's parents.) But the twist at the end, when Luke’s hips got crushed in between the metal fence door by the cows, that just can’t be good. Man has that kid had a bad year.
And while I really didn’t like Vince Howard’s character at first because all we got to see of him was his swagger and arrogance, I’ve been warming up to him as of late. In what should’ve been a proud moment, when he was named QB post, he was instead humiliated in the Lions locker room as the police searched his locker for a gun, causing his teammates and his coach to look upon him with suspicion. Ultimately, he did have a gun and, as a show of faith, he handed it over to Coach Taylor to prove that he’s really trying to do the right thing and seize his new opportunities Eric’s offered him. Eric now believes in Vince and Vince in Eric.
As for Tami Taylor and the goofy, drunk Glen kissing her . . . wait ‘til Coach Eric finds out about this. Wonder if he'll be as cool and collected as he was when Vince brought a gun to the Taylor house? Throw in the cute Jess-Landry flirtation and this season has been getting better and more emotionally revealing with each episode.
Are you finding yourself liking this season as much as I am?
What to Read Into the 'Mad Men' Season 4 Poster
Dapper Don’s back in a downtown high rise, not in a hotel room where we last saw the upstart Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce based. The glass walled room is empty but for a black telephone lying on the white floor. He’s smoking a cigarette and is staring out at the city, not looking altogether comfortable.
Sure, it looks like he's got a new, fresh, clean start, however Don's post-divorce life can't really be clean given that he and Betty have three kids to raise together and that his real name's not Don Draper. I really hope he doesn't become an absentee father in his attempt to start over, if nothing else, Don has always seemed as though he intensely loved his kids.
What do you get from this poster?
Image credit: AMC vis Entertainment Weekly.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
As 'Entourage' Enters Its 7th Season, Can't Decide, Is It Over for the Boys?
As I watched the trailer for the seventh season of Entourage -- which premieres on June 27 on HBO -- I couldn’t decide: Has this show run its course yet or is there some more drama to be enjoyed here?
Last season was wildly uneven and I started getting that been-there, done-that feeling as I grew increasingly irritated with nearly every character, most of whom felt stagnant man-boys (with the exception of E, who finally seems to be growing up).
HBO’s new promo asks the question, what happens after you’ve got it all? Well certainly you’d have a lot to lose, but haven’t we already gone that route with these characters, specifically in season four when, on the heels of the success with Aquaman, Vince's career plummeted after Medellin?
Is anyone looking forward to Entourage’s new season?
Last season was wildly uneven and I started getting that been-there, done-that feeling as I grew increasingly irritated with nearly every character, most of whom felt stagnant man-boys (with the exception of E, who finally seems to be growing up).
HBO’s new promo asks the question, what happens after you’ve got it all? Well certainly you’d have a lot to lose, but haven’t we already gone that route with these characters, specifically in season four when, on the heels of the success with Aquaman, Vince's career plummeted after Medellin?
Is anyone looking forward to Entourage’s new season?
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
'Mad Men' Season 4 Promos Highlight 'Fresh Starts'
It’s never too early to start thinking about the fourth season of Mad Men, which kicks off on Sunday, July 25.
Though series guru Matthew Weiner has been reluctant to reveal anything about what the fourth season will bring – season three concluded in December 1963 with Don toting luggage to a new apartment, Betty on a plane with Henry and baby Gene to get a quickie Reno divorce from Don, the formation of the new ad agency (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) based in a hotel suite, and Sally and Bobby Draper chillin’ in their Ossining home with Carla – these promos that are floating around emphasize the “fresh start” angle.
Meanwhile the promo below highlights Betty’s supposed “fresh start” with Henry. But Betty's still got Don, the father of her three children, to deal with, so how “fresh” can all of these starts be with these folks toting around some significant baggage, literally and figuratively?
Though series guru Matthew Weiner has been reluctant to reveal anything about what the fourth season will bring – season three concluded in December 1963 with Don toting luggage to a new apartment, Betty on a plane with Henry and baby Gene to get a quickie Reno divorce from Don, the formation of the new ad agency (Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) based in a hotel suite, and Sally and Bobby Draper chillin’ in their Ossining home with Carla – these promos that are floating around emphasize the “fresh start” angle.
Meanwhile the promo below highlights Betty’s supposed “fresh start” with Henry. But Betty's still got Don, the father of her three children, to deal with, so how “fresh” can all of these starts be with these folks toting around some significant baggage, literally and figuratively?
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Jack-Locke End-of-'Lost' Fight, Jedi-Style
A long time ago, in a series finale that already seems far, far away (from viewers’ expectations anyway), Lost concluded. (I'm still feeling somewhat bitter about the whole thing, to be honest.)
And it’s taken this long for a viral video about the series' big mano-a-mano (or mano-a-Smoke Monster) battle to make the rounds. It transformed Jack and Locke/Smoke Monster’s final fight on the rocky cliffs of The Island into a Jedi skirmish, complete with light sabers. It’s mildly entertaining, but the best snippet comes at the very end with Hurley and Charlie.
Lost Wars: Because Adding Jedis Can Fix Anything -- powered by Cracked.com
And it’s taken this long for a viral video about the series' big mano-a-mano (or mano-a-Smoke Monster) battle to make the rounds. It transformed Jack and Locke/Smoke Monster’s final fight on the rocky cliffs of The Island into a Jedi skirmish, complete with light sabers. It’s mildly entertaining, but the best snippet comes at the very end with Hurley and Charlie.
Lost Wars: Because Adding Jedis Can Fix Anything -- powered by Cracked.com
Robert Pattinson Doesn't Think He's a Good Actor
With only a few weeks to go before the June 30 premiere of the third installment of the Twilight saga, Eclipse, the media hype is starting to gear up in earnest. And ABC’s Nightline got into the act by interviewing Robert Pattinson, who stars in the Twilight films as the vampire Edward Cullen who's in love with the human, Bella Swan.
During the interview, Pattinson, who apparently doesn’t think he’s a very good actor, seemed pretty self-deprecating, low-key and almost shell-shocked by the fact that he’s considered a heartthrob and that loads of strangers want to chime in on his personal life, hence he tries to keep certain things -- like his love life -- private.
I found it interesting that, near the end of the interview, the 24-year-old joked about his “fears” about being too lucky all at once because, “If too many good things happen, then you’re gonna die at 30 and I didn’t want that to happen.” Hopefully he's not taking those James Dean comparisons too much to heart.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Notes on Pop Culture: FNL's Julie Takes Off, Those Maddening World Cup Vuvuzelas & 'thirtysomething' Season 3 Makes Great Viewing
FNL's Julie Takes Off
Tami Taylor was brought to tears in the latest Friday Night Lights episode, “Stay,” but not because of the nasty campaign to make her life as the principal of West Dillon High School miserable – a campaign spearheaded by the dark-hearted Joe McCoy. She shed tears because her daughter Julie took off overnight (against her parents’ explicit wishes) to see a multi-day music festival with the still grieving, still lost Matt, who had started overtly questioning why he had passed up his chance to attend a presitgious school in Chicago to stay in Dillon. By the episode’s end, Matt, apparently decided that staying was a mistake and he was smiling as he was driving away, leaving his Panther past behind him.
While Tami would’ve normally lit into Julie for blatantly disrespecting her authority and blowing off her repeated phone calls – no scenes of Tami texting Julie though, isn’t that what them there teens do now, text all the time? – when Julie burst into tears upon entering the Taylor house, saying she thought Matt was leaving for good, Tami’s heart just melted, despite Tami’s earlier vow to “beat her ass” for taking off.
Loved the series of scenes with the East Dillon Lions coaches talking to the media – including Coach Stan’s ridiculous “guarantee” of a Lions victory -- and Eric Taylor angrily walking out of a TV interview when the reporter asked him about his “history” of quitting. Hey, at least the Lions only lost to a powerhouse team in a televised game by seven. Not too shabby. If they’d won, it would’ve seemed a bit too unbelievable, too fairy tale-ish.
The story with Tim Riggins and Lyla, well, I already knew that Minka Kelly wasn’t going to be full-time this season, so the fact that she didn’t stay in Dillon like Matt had, at least initially, didn’t come as a big surprise. What I did find surprisingly, though, how heartbroken Tim looked when he told Lyla that all he wanted was her, and for Riggins’ Rigs to succeed with her as their business manager. Cue Lyla’s exit.
Shut the World Cup Vuvuzelas Up, Pretty Please
I watched the US-UK World Cup game on TV Saturday and became insanely irritated by those god awful horns, called vuvuzelas. Broadcasters are complaining that the sound of the noise-makers is drowning out the commentators, and players are peeved, saying that the incessant honking noise is distracting. The hatred many have expressed for those horns has World Cup organizers contemplating banning them. I absolutely cannot imagine what it must be like to try and watch the games in person and have to listen to that sound for 90 minutes straight. Maybe, for future game viewing, I should just watch games with the sound off.
Speaking of the World Cup, The Guardian has a very funny clip, reenacting the “big” moments in the US-UK game . . . in Legos, complete with the sounds of the vuvuzelas in the background.
thirtysomething Season 3 DVD was Great Viewing
The third season of thirtysomething – which aired between 1989/90 – was released in DVD format recently and, after plowing through the episodes during the season widely remembered as the one “when Nancy got cancer,” I discovered that this season was even more emotionally raw and relatable than its previous two, critically acclaimed seasons. Other than the Nancy cancer story, Gary and Susannah had a baby and Hope was pregnant with baby number two as she and Michael started to drift apart. Hope even kissed a bearded guy who worked at a D.C.-based an environmental organization who worked on a failed campaign with Hope to try to shut down an incinerator project in her neighborhood. It’s also the season where the Machiavellian Miles Drentell dramatically locked horns with Michael and Eliot. My review of the season three DVD set is here.
I cannot wait until the fourth and final season is released as I never saw it when it originally aired as I was busy finishing my senior year of college. The ShoutFactory hasn’t yet announced its release date but it has been releasing the first three seasons about six months apart from one another.
Did you have a favorite episode of thirtysomething?
Tami Taylor was brought to tears in the latest Friday Night Lights episode, “Stay,” but not because of the nasty campaign to make her life as the principal of West Dillon High School miserable – a campaign spearheaded by the dark-hearted Joe McCoy. She shed tears because her daughter Julie took off overnight (against her parents’ explicit wishes) to see a multi-day music festival with the still grieving, still lost Matt, who had started overtly questioning why he had passed up his chance to attend a presitgious school in Chicago to stay in Dillon. By the episode’s end, Matt, apparently decided that staying was a mistake and he was smiling as he was driving away, leaving his Panther past behind him.
While Tami would’ve normally lit into Julie for blatantly disrespecting her authority and blowing off her repeated phone calls – no scenes of Tami texting Julie though, isn’t that what them there teens do now, text all the time? – when Julie burst into tears upon entering the Taylor house, saying she thought Matt was leaving for good, Tami’s heart just melted, despite Tami’s earlier vow to “beat her ass” for taking off.
Loved the series of scenes with the East Dillon Lions coaches talking to the media – including Coach Stan’s ridiculous “guarantee” of a Lions victory -- and Eric Taylor angrily walking out of a TV interview when the reporter asked him about his “history” of quitting. Hey, at least the Lions only lost to a powerhouse team in a televised game by seven. Not too shabby. If they’d won, it would’ve seemed a bit too unbelievable, too fairy tale-ish.
The story with Tim Riggins and Lyla, well, I already knew that Minka Kelly wasn’t going to be full-time this season, so the fact that she didn’t stay in Dillon like Matt had, at least initially, didn’t come as a big surprise. What I did find surprisingly, though, how heartbroken Tim looked when he told Lyla that all he wanted was her, and for Riggins’ Rigs to succeed with her as their business manager. Cue Lyla’s exit.
Shut the World Cup Vuvuzelas Up, Pretty Please
I watched the US-UK World Cup game on TV Saturday and became insanely irritated by those god awful horns, called vuvuzelas. Broadcasters are complaining that the sound of the noise-makers is drowning out the commentators, and players are peeved, saying that the incessant honking noise is distracting. The hatred many have expressed for those horns has World Cup organizers contemplating banning them. I absolutely cannot imagine what it must be like to try and watch the games in person and have to listen to that sound for 90 minutes straight. Maybe, for future game viewing, I should just watch games with the sound off.
Speaking of the World Cup, The Guardian has a very funny clip, reenacting the “big” moments in the US-UK game . . . in Legos, complete with the sounds of the vuvuzelas in the background.
thirtysomething Season 3 DVD was Great Viewing
The third season of thirtysomething – which aired between 1989/90 – was released in DVD format recently and, after plowing through the episodes during the season widely remembered as the one “when Nancy got cancer,” I discovered that this season was even more emotionally raw and relatable than its previous two, critically acclaimed seasons. Other than the Nancy cancer story, Gary and Susannah had a baby and Hope was pregnant with baby number two as she and Michael started to drift apart. Hope even kissed a bearded guy who worked at a D.C.-based an environmental organization who worked on a failed campaign with Hope to try to shut down an incinerator project in her neighborhood. It’s also the season where the Machiavellian Miles Drentell dramatically locked horns with Michael and Eliot. My review of the season three DVD set is here.
I cannot wait until the fourth and final season is released as I never saw it when it originally aired as I was busy finishing my senior year of college. The ShoutFactory hasn’t yet announced its release date but it has been releasing the first three seasons about six months apart from one another.
Did you have a favorite episode of thirtysomething?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Notes on Politics: Election Night as 'Ladies' Night,' Obstructing Oil Spill News Coverage, Goodbye 'Chevy' & Is Feminism Label for Liberals Only?
Election Night as ‘Ladies’ Night’
Several female pols prevailed in primary elections on Tuesday night, causing many pundits to grope around for some kind of clever, all-encompassing storyline around which they could wrap the election results, given that the anti-incumbency line didn't seem to work out too well. Invoking the term “Ladies Night” appeared to be the media favorite. Check out Jon Stewart’s take on the media’s gal power declaration on The Daily Show:
Obstructing Oil Spill News Coverage
Whenever I hear reports from BP execs and federal officials about the status of the Gulf coast oil spill, I’m pretty skeptical and assume that I’m not being told the whole story for whatever reason, figuring that the money and political capital at stake, prohibiting the real story from coming out. So I give a jaundiced eye to their reports about how much oil is really being released into the Gulf of Mexico and the true impact of it -- and the chemical dispersants -- on the environment and the economy. I prefer, instead, to sample a variety of news reports from organizations which lean left, right and somewhere in the middle to try to get a real sense of what’s going on.
Then I read this story on the front page of the New York Times today, about BP and government officials obstructing the media’s access to affected areas, including threatening a New York Daily News reporter and a CBS News crew with arrest for trying to gain access to a public beaches where oil was washing ashore. The Times reported:
“Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.”
Yeah, this is comforting.
Goodbye ‘Chevy’
Also on page one of today’s New York Times, is a piece about how G.M. execs want to stop using the nickname “Chevy” for their vehicles, preferring, instead, to use the full, formal name, “Chevrolet.”
“On Tuesday, G.M. sent a memo to Chevrolet employees at its Detroit headquarters, promoting the importance of ‘consistency’ for the brand, which was the nation’s best-selling line of cars and trucks for more than half a century after World War II,” the Times reported. "And one way to present a consistent brand message, the memo suggested, is to stop saying 'Chevy,' though the word is one of the world's best-known, longest-lived product nicknames."
Bet that’ll go over about as well as when federal government officials tried to re-label the swine flu by the more clinical, “H1N1 disease.”
Is ‘Feminism’ Label for Liberals Only?
There’s been a spirited debate over the past few weeks spawned by the fact that Sarah Palin has started embracing the word “feminist.”
Several bloggers for feminist/liberal-leaning writers took great umbrage to Palin claiming this word as her own, pointing, in particular, to their belief that if a woman does not favor abortion rights, she can’t be considered a feminist. Writing in the Washington Post, Jessica Valenti wrote, “Palin's ‘feminism’ isn't just co-opting the language of the feminist movement, it's deliberately misrepresenting real feminism to distract from the fact that she supports policies that limit women's rights.”
On Salon Rebecca Traister wrote:
“There has to be a move toward ownership from other Democrats, from those women and men who have perhaps not yet named themselves feminists . . . but who also do not want to see ‘women's rights’ come to mean the exaltation of fetal life over female life and religion over science, who don't want to see ‘women's liberation’ divorced from notions of equal opportunity and instead reframed as Ayn Rand-ian survival of the richest or most privileged.”
Meanwhile others have pushed back against the outcry over the notion that conservatives are calling themselves feminists including writer Cathy Young who tossed out the most recent volley on this subject in the Boston Globe:
"Who owns feminism today? Many feminists are incensed when the label is appropriated by women who question the Violence Against Women Act, or who argue that the pay differential between women and men is due largely to women’s more family-focused personal choices, not discrimination. Yet critiques of the conventional feminist paradigms of such problems as domestic violence and the gender gap in pay have been made both by many dissident feminists and by many scholars and researchers. To reject them out of hand as incompatible with feminism is not only ideologically intolerant, it also suggests an unwillingness to even consider factual claims that are at odds with dogma.
. . . Yet the audience for a different kind of feminism — one that seeks individualistic and market-oriented solutions, rather than big-government-driven ones, and focuses on women’s empowerment rather than oppression — is clearly there. The women who embrace it are likely to transform both feminism and conservatism. The feminist movement ignores them at its peril."
Several female pols prevailed in primary elections on Tuesday night, causing many pundits to grope around for some kind of clever, all-encompassing storyline around which they could wrap the election results, given that the anti-incumbency line didn't seem to work out too well. Invoking the term “Ladies Night” appeared to be the media favorite. Check out Jon Stewart’s take on the media’s gal power declaration on The Daily Show:
Obstructing Oil Spill News Coverage
Whenever I hear reports from BP execs and federal officials about the status of the Gulf coast oil spill, I’m pretty skeptical and assume that I’m not being told the whole story for whatever reason, figuring that the money and political capital at stake, prohibiting the real story from coming out. So I give a jaundiced eye to their reports about how much oil is really being released into the Gulf of Mexico and the true impact of it -- and the chemical dispersants -- on the environment and the economy. I prefer, instead, to sample a variety of news reports from organizations which lean left, right and somewhere in the middle to try to get a real sense of what’s going on.
Then I read this story on the front page of the New York Times today, about BP and government officials obstructing the media’s access to affected areas, including threatening a New York Daily News reporter and a CBS News crew with arrest for trying to gain access to a public beaches where oil was washing ashore. The Times reported:
“Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.”
Yeah, this is comforting.
Goodbye ‘Chevy’
Also on page one of today’s New York Times, is a piece about how G.M. execs want to stop using the nickname “Chevy” for their vehicles, preferring, instead, to use the full, formal name, “Chevrolet.”
“On Tuesday, G.M. sent a memo to Chevrolet employees at its Detroit headquarters, promoting the importance of ‘consistency’ for the brand, which was the nation’s best-selling line of cars and trucks for more than half a century after World War II,” the Times reported. "And one way to present a consistent brand message, the memo suggested, is to stop saying 'Chevy,' though the word is one of the world's best-known, longest-lived product nicknames."
Bet that’ll go over about as well as when federal government officials tried to re-label the swine flu by the more clinical, “H1N1 disease.”
Is ‘Feminism’ Label for Liberals Only?
There’s been a spirited debate over the past few weeks spawned by the fact that Sarah Palin has started embracing the word “feminist.”
Several bloggers for feminist/liberal-leaning writers took great umbrage to Palin claiming this word as her own, pointing, in particular, to their belief that if a woman does not favor abortion rights, she can’t be considered a feminist. Writing in the Washington Post, Jessica Valenti wrote, “Palin's ‘feminism’ isn't just co-opting the language of the feminist movement, it's deliberately misrepresenting real feminism to distract from the fact that she supports policies that limit women's rights.”
On Salon Rebecca Traister wrote:
“There has to be a move toward ownership from other Democrats, from those women and men who have perhaps not yet named themselves feminists . . . but who also do not want to see ‘women's rights’ come to mean the exaltation of fetal life over female life and religion over science, who don't want to see ‘women's liberation’ divorced from notions of equal opportunity and instead reframed as Ayn Rand-ian survival of the richest or most privileged.”
Meanwhile others have pushed back against the outcry over the notion that conservatives are calling themselves feminists including writer Cathy Young who tossed out the most recent volley on this subject in the Boston Globe:
"Who owns feminism today? Many feminists are incensed when the label is appropriated by women who question the Violence Against Women Act, or who argue that the pay differential between women and men is due largely to women’s more family-focused personal choices, not discrimination. Yet critiques of the conventional feminist paradigms of such problems as domestic violence and the gender gap in pay have been made both by many dissident feminists and by many scholars and researchers. To reject them out of hand as incompatible with feminism is not only ideologically intolerant, it also suggests an unwillingness to even consider factual claims that are at odds with dogma.
. . . Yet the audience for a different kind of feminism — one that seeks individualistic and market-oriented solutions, rather than big-government-driven ones, and focuses on women’s empowerment rather than oppression — is clearly there. The women who embrace it are likely to transform both feminism and conservatism. The feminist movement ignores them at its peril."
Monday, June 7, 2010
Notes on Pop Culture: FNL's Matt Saracen's Heartbreak, Harry Potter 'Deathly Hallows' Trailer, Summer TV
FNL's Matt Saracen's Heartbreak
How good was the actor, Zach Gilford, who plays Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights in the recent episode, “The Son?” He underplayed his role as the grieving son very nicely and to great effect.
For practically the entire series, Matt has been the character who’s had to act more mature than his age, like the responsible authority figure in his house when he was just an immature high school kid. He took care of his ailing grandmother and, only recently allowed his previously estranged mother to help them out. At the end of last season Matt was planning to go to Chicago to pursue his promising art career. He prepared by getting his grandmother all set up in a home that would keep her safe.
Then he was beset by horrendous guilt. Guilt about leaving his girlfriend Julie behind. Guilt about leaving his grandmother in a group home. He, once again, put himself and his desires on the backburner, took a job delivering Panther pizza and enrolled in community college classes where his art teacher didn't think his work was all that special.
Now, in this recent episode, his largely absent Army father was killed in Iraq. The normally even-keeled Matt felt utterly lost and unhinged, particularly by his mixed feelings about a dad who he believed was so afraid of responsibility and child-rearing that he kept re-enlisting and going to Iraq to avoid being with his son.
That scene with Tami and Matt at a strip mall funeral home, so upsetting. If that scene, where Tami dressed down the funeral director after Matt left -- chastizing the man for how much he was trying to charge Matt for the funeral services -- doesn’t demonstrate that the Taylors are the central, beating hearts of this show, nothing does. (Why, by the way, was Tami there and not Matt’s mom? Is it because he’s closer to Tami? That doesn't say much about Matt's mother.)
Will this event become a major catalyst for the drifting Matt? We'll see.
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Trailer
I live in a house full of Harry Potter fans. My 11-year-old twins have read the Potter series over and over again and have seen all the movies. My husband – who’s not a big reader – was coerced by the twins into reading the entire series last summer.
Currently my husband and I are reading the series aloud to our 8-year-old son – we’re in the middle of the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire. So whenever there’s anything new on the Harry Potter front, there’s tremendous excitement.
While my kids have been asking when we’re going to go down to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, I think I'm going to try to distract them with this new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Summer TV
Who says there’s nothing decent on TV in the summer? You’ve got FNL still airing new episodes, Mad Men coming up next month, Weeds and couple of new shows including ones starring Betty White and Laura Linney on tap.
My Pop Culture column this week is all about summer TV and I highlighted what’s in store for shows like Mad Men, Rescue Me, Hot in Cleveland, The Big C, Weeds and HawthoRNe.
When it comes to Weeds, what’s your take on the teaser Showtime put out? Do you really think that, after Nancy’s son killed Esteban’s evil, criminal political “consultant” with a croquet mallet in the season finale last year, that Nancy’s really going to be able to “bury” her connections to Esteban, especially given that she had his baby, oh, and she married him last season?
How good was the actor, Zach Gilford, who plays Matt Saracen on Friday Night Lights in the recent episode, “The Son?” He underplayed his role as the grieving son very nicely and to great effect.
For practically the entire series, Matt has been the character who’s had to act more mature than his age, like the responsible authority figure in his house when he was just an immature high school kid. He took care of his ailing grandmother and, only recently allowed his previously estranged mother to help them out. At the end of last season Matt was planning to go to Chicago to pursue his promising art career. He prepared by getting his grandmother all set up in a home that would keep her safe.
Then he was beset by horrendous guilt. Guilt about leaving his girlfriend Julie behind. Guilt about leaving his grandmother in a group home. He, once again, put himself and his desires on the backburner, took a job delivering Panther pizza and enrolled in community college classes where his art teacher didn't think his work was all that special.
Now, in this recent episode, his largely absent Army father was killed in Iraq. The normally even-keeled Matt felt utterly lost and unhinged, particularly by his mixed feelings about a dad who he believed was so afraid of responsibility and child-rearing that he kept re-enlisting and going to Iraq to avoid being with his son.
That scene with Tami and Matt at a strip mall funeral home, so upsetting. If that scene, where Tami dressed down the funeral director after Matt left -- chastizing the man for how much he was trying to charge Matt for the funeral services -- doesn’t demonstrate that the Taylors are the central, beating hearts of this show, nothing does. (Why, by the way, was Tami there and not Matt’s mom? Is it because he’s closer to Tami? That doesn't say much about Matt's mother.)
Will this event become a major catalyst for the drifting Matt? We'll see.
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Trailer
I live in a house full of Harry Potter fans. My 11-year-old twins have read the Potter series over and over again and have seen all the movies. My husband – who’s not a big reader – was coerced by the twins into reading the entire series last summer.
Currently my husband and I are reading the series aloud to our 8-year-old son – we’re in the middle of the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire. So whenever there’s anything new on the Harry Potter front, there’s tremendous excitement.
While my kids have been asking when we’re going to go down to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, I think I'm going to try to distract them with this new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Summer TV
Who says there’s nothing decent on TV in the summer? You’ve got FNL still airing new episodes, Mad Men coming up next month, Weeds and couple of new shows including ones starring Betty White and Laura Linney on tap.
My Pop Culture column this week is all about summer TV and I highlighted what’s in store for shows like Mad Men, Rescue Me, Hot in Cleveland, The Big C, Weeds and HawthoRNe.
When it comes to Weeds, what’s your take on the teaser Showtime put out? Do you really think that, after Nancy’s son killed Esteban’s evil, criminal political “consultant” with a croquet mallet in the season finale last year, that Nancy’s really going to be able to “bury” her connections to Esteban, especially given that she had his baby, oh, and she married him last season?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
What Do You Think About TV 'Spoilers'?
Spoilers are a major pain in the butt when you write, tweet or Facebook about TV shows because it’s inevitable that someone, somewhere will have DVRed the program about which you’re sharing your sparklingly insightful observations. And some of those folks may loudly object to any revelation, even about an already-aired TV program, no matter how witty your remarks might be.
If you’re blogging about a TV show -- even if you plaster a big, fat old “spoiler warning” at the top of your entry as I'm wont to do -- there are people who'll still go nutty because they want everyone to keep the TV episode information under wraps and not put anything out there that that might inadvertantly wreck their surprise when they finally get around to watching the show. (This is why, after Sun and Jin drowned on Lost, I chose to put the photo of them AFTER the jump so people looking at the blog wouldn't holler that I'd spoiled the episode of "The Candidate" by posting their image under the headline, "Lost's 'The Candidate' Made Me Cry, Dammit".)
If you’re live-tweeting or Facebooking a TV show as you watch it, people who either a) DVRed the program or b) live in another location where the show hasn’t yet aired, are likely to blast you for being an East Coast elitist spoil sport.
For example, the day AFTER the massively hyped, buzz-worthy Lost series finale, I tweeted and blogged (this blog is syndicated on Facebook via Networked Blogs) about the finale and later read status updates from people threatening to de-friend/unfollow people who posted anything resembling a Lost spoiler because they hadn’t seen the finale yet.
So when I read Jay Black’s post on TV Squad (Full disclosure: I used to blog for them) entitled, “TV 101: The Spoiler Police Need to Calm Down,” I wanted to stand up and cheer. After offering up his own definition of spoilers – which he said include the endings of movies (for which you have to pay) and "inside" information about what’s going to happen in advance of it being aired on a TV show – Black, a pop culture/TV writer, issued a few of his personal rules about spoilers including these:
-- “One a show begins to air, I can discuss it in real time. If you live on the West Coast, stay off of Twitter and Facebook. Sorry, it’s the price you pay for great weather and loose marijuana laws.”
AND
-- “After the show is finished, anything and everything is on the table. If you don’t wish to hear about it, I suggest you unplug your Internet connection and move into the Unabomber Cabin.”
A few weeks ago, I hadn’t been able to watch a pair of DVRed episodes of 24. I knew that I’d be going on Twitter, Facebook and pop culture/TV web sites which would likely be discussing the shows before I’d be able to watch them and that I might come across information about the unseen episodes. And I did. I learned that Renee Walker had been killed before I saw it unfold on my DVR. But I wasn’t angry because the whole world doesn’t have to grind to a halt and NOT talk about already-aired 24 episodes just because I had too much on my plate for a couple of weeks. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You make choices.
Black feels the same way:
“The Internet shouldn’t be subject to your personal whims. The Internet exists for only three purposes: To spread information, the (ahem) intellectual discussion of that information and hardcore balloon stomping fetish porn. To ask everyone to tiptoe around the first and second of those pillars just because you DVRed Dexter and haven’t gotten around to watching yet is pure selfishness.”
What do you think about “spoilers” about TV shows? Do you have a problem with people live-tweeting/Facebooking shows or blogging about them once they’ve aired? Have you had episodes “spoiled” for you?
If you’re blogging about a TV show -- even if you plaster a big, fat old “spoiler warning” at the top of your entry as I'm wont to do -- there are people who'll still go nutty because they want everyone to keep the TV episode information under wraps and not put anything out there that that might inadvertantly wreck their surprise when they finally get around to watching the show. (This is why, after Sun and Jin drowned on Lost, I chose to put the photo of them AFTER the jump so people looking at the blog wouldn't holler that I'd spoiled the episode of "The Candidate" by posting their image under the headline, "Lost's 'The Candidate' Made Me Cry, Dammit".)
If you’re live-tweeting or Facebooking a TV show as you watch it, people who either a) DVRed the program or b) live in another location where the show hasn’t yet aired, are likely to blast you for being an East Coast elitist spoil sport.
For example, the day AFTER the massively hyped, buzz-worthy Lost series finale, I tweeted and blogged (this blog is syndicated on Facebook via Networked Blogs) about the finale and later read status updates from people threatening to de-friend/unfollow people who posted anything resembling a Lost spoiler because they hadn’t seen the finale yet.
So when I read Jay Black’s post on TV Squad (Full disclosure: I used to blog for them) entitled, “TV 101: The Spoiler Police Need to Calm Down,” I wanted to stand up and cheer. After offering up his own definition of spoilers – which he said include the endings of movies (for which you have to pay) and "inside" information about what’s going to happen in advance of it being aired on a TV show – Black, a pop culture/TV writer, issued a few of his personal rules about spoilers including these:
-- “One a show begins to air, I can discuss it in real time. If you live on the West Coast, stay off of Twitter and Facebook. Sorry, it’s the price you pay for great weather and loose marijuana laws.”
AND
-- “After the show is finished, anything and everything is on the table. If you don’t wish to hear about it, I suggest you unplug your Internet connection and move into the Unabomber Cabin.”
A few weeks ago, I hadn’t been able to watch a pair of DVRed episodes of 24. I knew that I’d be going on Twitter, Facebook and pop culture/TV web sites which would likely be discussing the shows before I’d be able to watch them and that I might come across information about the unseen episodes. And I did. I learned that Renee Walker had been killed before I saw it unfold on my DVR. But I wasn’t angry because the whole world doesn’t have to grind to a halt and NOT talk about already-aired 24 episodes just because I had too much on my plate for a couple of weeks. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You make choices.
Black feels the same way:
“The Internet shouldn’t be subject to your personal whims. The Internet exists for only three purposes: To spread information, the (ahem) intellectual discussion of that information and hardcore balloon stomping fetish porn. To ask everyone to tiptoe around the first and second of those pillars just because you DVRed Dexter and haven’t gotten around to watching yet is pure selfishness.”
What do you think about “spoilers” about TV shows? Do you have a problem with people live-tweeting/Facebooking shows or blogging about them once they’ve aired? Have you had episodes “spoiled” for you?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Notes on Politics: All About the Oil Spill
It’s the nightmare that seems to have no end.
As millions of gallons of oil gush from the out-of-control BP oil line which has been polluting the Gulf of Mexico since April, killing wildlife, destroying ecosystems, as well as devastating Gulf Coast businesses and livelihoods across a large swath of American coastline (never mind the long-term impact of the toxins used to disperse the oil dumped by the millions of gallons into the ocean), and nobody seems to have any clue as to what they’re doing about how to stop the leak, never mind how to deal with what’s already out there.
Pumping mud and junk -- tires and golf balls -- into the pipe to stop it up? Might work in your kitchen pipes but didn’t work with this pipe, one with no working “off” switch. (This “junk shot” approach, ditched after putting a hat/cap over the pipeline failed, sounded like something Wile E. Coyote might attempt while using Acme brand mud and tires.)
In the meantime, President Obama’s promises to devote his utmost attention to solving this, as well as applying the power of the federal government to the BP execs, have rung hollow. The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, one of many critics, has been highly critical of the president’s perceived lack of passion and anger, fury which is felt by Americans who are watching horrifying scenes play out on TV and online via the dreadfully depressing oil spill live feed. Today Dowd wrote:
“It’s not a good narrative arc: The man who walked on water is now ensnared by a crisis under water.
One little hole a mile down on the ocean floor, so deep it seems like hell spewing up its sulfurous smoke, has turned the thrilling saga of The One into the gurgling horror of The Abyss.
. . . With as much as 34 million gallons of oil inking the Gulf of Mexico, ‘Yes we can’ has been downgraded to ‘Will we ever?’”
Ouch. Political satirist Jon Stewart took on the issue with aplomb, devoting two segments to the issue on The Daily Show.
Oh, and as for the diamond saw Stewart mentioned, latest reports coming from the bottom of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico: The damn saw is STUCK! BP seems like it should be re-branded as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
As millions of gallons of oil gush from the out-of-control BP oil line which has been polluting the Gulf of Mexico since April, killing wildlife, destroying ecosystems, as well as devastating Gulf Coast businesses and livelihoods across a large swath of American coastline (never mind the long-term impact of the toxins used to disperse the oil dumped by the millions of gallons into the ocean), and nobody seems to have any clue as to what they’re doing about how to stop the leak, never mind how to deal with what’s already out there.
Pumping mud and junk -- tires and golf balls -- into the pipe to stop it up? Might work in your kitchen pipes but didn’t work with this pipe, one with no working “off” switch. (This “junk shot” approach, ditched after putting a hat/cap over the pipeline failed, sounded like something Wile E. Coyote might attempt while using Acme brand mud and tires.)
In the meantime, President Obama’s promises to devote his utmost attention to solving this, as well as applying the power of the federal government to the BP execs, have rung hollow. The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd, one of many critics, has been highly critical of the president’s perceived lack of passion and anger, fury which is felt by Americans who are watching horrifying scenes play out on TV and online via the dreadfully depressing oil spill live feed. Today Dowd wrote:
“It’s not a good narrative arc: The man who walked on water is now ensnared by a crisis under water.
One little hole a mile down on the ocean floor, so deep it seems like hell spewing up its sulfurous smoke, has turned the thrilling saga of The One into the gurgling horror of The Abyss.
. . . With as much as 34 million gallons of oil inking the Gulf of Mexico, ‘Yes we can’ has been downgraded to ‘Will we ever?’”
Ouch. Political satirist Jon Stewart took on the issue with aplomb, devoting two segments to the issue on The Daily Show.
Oh, and as for the diamond saw Stewart mentioned, latest reports coming from the bottom of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico: The damn saw is STUCK! BP seems like it should be re-branded as the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.
Fan-Generated 'Mad Men' Video Makes Me Impatient for Season 4
The only thing that can attempt to fill the void left by Lost's departure (other than the quiet, moving incisiveness of Friday Night Lights): A new season of Mad Men. And Don Draper of course.
I found this fan-created video on the web site Collider via the Mad Men official web site and it's making me impatient for the new season to start next month.
FYI: The fourth season of Mad Men premieres on Sunday, July 25 at 10 p.m. on AMC.
I found this fan-created video on the web site Collider via the Mad Men official web site and it's making me impatient for the new season to start next month.
FYI: The fourth season of Mad Men premieres on Sunday, July 25 at 10 p.m. on AMC.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Yet Another 'Eclipse' Clip to Whet Twilight Fans' Appetites
As we get closer to the June 30 release date for the third film installment in the Twilight series -- Eclipse -- the Twilight PR machine is trying to amp up demand by releasing little tidbits from the movie, like this new one featuring Edward getting in Jacob's face after Jacob said he had kissed Bella. (*and all the tweens swoon*)
Edward was relatively restrained, considering, well, you know, that Jacob's a werewolf and Edward's a vampire. And, is it just me, or does Bella's dad look almost as pale as Edward?
I'm hoping Eclipse is better than New Moon, which I didn't enjoy as much as the original Twilight. Is that asking too much?
Edward was relatively restrained, considering, well, you know, that Jacob's a werewolf and Edward's a vampire. And, is it just me, or does Bella's dad look almost as pale as Edward?
I'm hoping Eclipse is better than New Moon, which I didn't enjoy as much as the original Twilight. Is that asking too much?
Notes on Pop Culture: FNL, Alias, Top Characters of Past 20 Years & SATC 2
FNL: Coach Taylor Boosts Morale
Last week, Coach Eric Taylor attempted to address some of the dire financial needs of his ragtag, upstart (0-2) East Dillon football high school team by organizing fundraisers and writing a personal check to cover the initial installment on the team’s new uniforms. On this week’s installment of Friday Night Lights, “A Sort of Homecoming,” Coach Taylor was trying to bolster the morale end of things, trying to rally the community behind his team, rendering him looking awfully, earnestly ham-fisted at times.
Who knew that ex-Panther booster Buddy Garrity would be his saving grace in luring former East Dillon players who’d won the State Championship in 1983, to appear at a pep rally/homecoming Eric organized? Or that Jess Merriweather would be the person who'd convince her former football star father to reluctantly offer up his restaurant for the rally? (Can't wait for more backstory on that family.) I loved watching how this all came together -- as well as the speech about a “pride” of lions -- knowing that nothing, it seems, is coming as easily for Eric as it had back in West Dillon.
The other two threads that interested me during FNL's new episode this week: Matt Saracen realized that perhaps he made a mistake in passing up a golden opportunity in Chicago in order to stay in Dillon with his high school girlfriend Julie, who's mulling college opportunities on both coasts, and Tami Taylor continued to endure all manner of harassment (character assassination on the radio, vandalism to her car) for simply enforcing the school rules by sending football star Luke Cafferty to the proper school.
As this season has unfolded, I’ve been wondering if Eric really understands the magnitude of the malice that's been directed his wife or whether she’s keeping a lot of it from him, as he’s been so completely absorbed with his job that he doesn’t see what’s happening with his own family . . . other than whether Tami would be willing to cook dinner for former East Dillon football champs.
A Retooled Alias?
I was a major fan of Alias. Became quite fond of J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber while watching this smart and thoroughly entertaining (in the first three seasons anyway) espionage drama which was at its greatest when Garner’s Sydney Bristow was working as a double-agent for the CIA while serving the evil international crime syndicate, SD-6, run by the nefarious Arvin Sloane. (The show launched not only Garner’s career, but Terry O’Quinn’s -- aka Lost's John Locke -- and Bradley Cooper’s, he of Hangover fame.)
When I got word that people have been buzzing about what they’re calling a “reboot” of Alias – an E! report called labeled it an “initial talk” about a newly revised Alias series, sans the Rambaldi element – I was skeptical. Abrams is already working on a new NBC show, Undercovers, that’s slated to begin next fall about a married couple who met while working as spies and are re-activated into the espionage game, adding a dash of excitement to their marriage, now that they're boring, staid caterers. Wouldn’t a new version of Alias be too similar? Would any of the old characters be involved? Could you really call it Alias without them?
EW Top 100 Characters List
If you were to sit down and make a list of the top 100 fictional characters from the past 20 years, who’d be on it? The editors and writers at Entertainment Weekly took up this challenge and put together a rather eclectic list. Why certain characters rank higher than others, and why certain ones were selected over others – like Tim Riggins making the list as representative of FNL and NOT the Taylor family? – remains a mystery to me. Kind of like the Lost finale. The EW top 10 of the past 20 years:
1. Homer Simpson
2. Harry Potter
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Tony Soprano
5. The Joker (Heath Ledger’s version)
6. Rachel Green from Friends
7. Edward Scissorhands
8. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs
9. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
10. SpongeBob Squarepants
FYI: Some of my favorites made the list: Sydney Bristow (42), Jack Bauer from 24 (44), John Locke from Lost (63), Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls (65), Don Draper from Mad Men (74) and Gregory House from House (84).
Sex and the City 2
I went to see Sex and the City 2 on Friday and dedicated this week’s Pop Culture column to it over on Mommy Tracked. While I’m not going to tell you that it’s absolutely fabulous – I called it an “over-the-top, junk-food-binge of a film,” a bad-good movie you can enjoy with friends and share a laugh – I was steamed by the language some reviewers used when writing about the characters and the women in the film, everything from “shrews” to “harridans.”
Image credit: ABC/Alias.tv.
Last week, Coach Eric Taylor attempted to address some of the dire financial needs of his ragtag, upstart (0-2) East Dillon football high school team by organizing fundraisers and writing a personal check to cover the initial installment on the team’s new uniforms. On this week’s installment of Friday Night Lights, “A Sort of Homecoming,” Coach Taylor was trying to bolster the morale end of things, trying to rally the community behind his team, rendering him looking awfully, earnestly ham-fisted at times.
Who knew that ex-Panther booster Buddy Garrity would be his saving grace in luring former East Dillon players who’d won the State Championship in 1983, to appear at a pep rally/homecoming Eric organized? Or that Jess Merriweather would be the person who'd convince her former football star father to reluctantly offer up his restaurant for the rally? (Can't wait for more backstory on that family.) I loved watching how this all came together -- as well as the speech about a “pride” of lions -- knowing that nothing, it seems, is coming as easily for Eric as it had back in West Dillon.
The other two threads that interested me during FNL's new episode this week: Matt Saracen realized that perhaps he made a mistake in passing up a golden opportunity in Chicago in order to stay in Dillon with his high school girlfriend Julie, who's mulling college opportunities on both coasts, and Tami Taylor continued to endure all manner of harassment (character assassination on the radio, vandalism to her car) for simply enforcing the school rules by sending football star Luke Cafferty to the proper school.
As this season has unfolded, I’ve been wondering if Eric really understands the magnitude of the malice that's been directed his wife or whether she’s keeping a lot of it from him, as he’s been so completely absorbed with his job that he doesn’t see what’s happening with his own family . . . other than whether Tami would be willing to cook dinner for former East Dillon football champs.
I was a major fan of Alias. Became quite fond of J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber while watching this smart and thoroughly entertaining (in the first three seasons anyway) espionage drama which was at its greatest when Garner’s Sydney Bristow was working as a double-agent for the CIA while serving the evil international crime syndicate, SD-6, run by the nefarious Arvin Sloane. (The show launched not only Garner’s career, but Terry O’Quinn’s -- aka Lost's John Locke -- and Bradley Cooper’s, he of Hangover fame.)
When I got word that people have been buzzing about what they’re calling a “reboot” of Alias – an E! report called labeled it an “initial talk” about a newly revised Alias series, sans the Rambaldi element – I was skeptical. Abrams is already working on a new NBC show, Undercovers, that’s slated to begin next fall about a married couple who met while working as spies and are re-activated into the espionage game, adding a dash of excitement to their marriage, now that they're boring, staid caterers. Wouldn’t a new version of Alias be too similar? Would any of the old characters be involved? Could you really call it Alias without them?
EW Top 100 Characters List
If you were to sit down and make a list of the top 100 fictional characters from the past 20 years, who’d be on it? The editors and writers at Entertainment Weekly took up this challenge and put together a rather eclectic list. Why certain characters rank higher than others, and why certain ones were selected over others – like Tim Riggins making the list as representative of FNL and NOT the Taylor family? – remains a mystery to me. Kind of like the Lost finale. The EW top 10 of the past 20 years:
1. Homer Simpson
2. Harry Potter
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Tony Soprano
5. The Joker (Heath Ledger’s version)
6. Rachel Green from Friends
7. Edward Scissorhands
8. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs
9. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City
10. SpongeBob Squarepants
FYI: Some of my favorites made the list: Sydney Bristow (42), Jack Bauer from 24 (44), John Locke from Lost (63), Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls (65), Don Draper from Mad Men (74) and Gregory House from House (84).
Sex and the City 2
I went to see Sex and the City 2 on Friday and dedicated this week’s Pop Culture column to it over on Mommy Tracked. While I’m not going to tell you that it’s absolutely fabulous – I called it an “over-the-top, junk-food-binge of a film,” a bad-good movie you can enjoy with friends and share a laugh – I was steamed by the language some reviewers used when writing about the characters and the women in the film, everything from “shrews” to “harridans.”
Image credit: ABC/Alias.tv.
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