Hating Hamlet

I recently watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for kind of the first time; I had already seen several scenes and thought I had good grasp of the general narrative because of parody/montages/general cultural awareness. I thought the opening scene with the apes was a prologue to the story about HAL 2000 taking over a ship in a nearly perfectly executed Sci-Fi thriller. Clearly I inferred too much from my general pop culture knowledge as it is surprisingly hard to capture surreal existential symbolism in a 3 minute montage that also attempts to summarize The Godfather and Star Wars. Though I expected a completely different film 2001 exceeded my expectations. It was intellectually and viscerally stimulating in a way that most art is incapable of and is a technical masterpiece. As I was watching the movie I was given a lot of time to think (which tends to happen when you watch long scenes of satellites orbiting the earth to a score of classical music), but a couple thoughts were persistent, specifically "What the fuck is going on?", "How did Kubrick get that shot without CGI?" and "There is no way in the hell this movie would ever get made today."

The latter is not the precursor to hifalutin anti-populist rant, about movie studios inability to discern quality,* but a matter of fact. I doubt many largely plotless, dialogueless expensive movies are getting greenlit and for good reason; they will likely lose money. However 2001 did get made in spite of it's lack of commercial viability and it is considered one of the best films of all time and it has become part of the canon(and therefore is shown in montages). Despite this cultural consesus as I watched 2001 I felt very confident that most people would hate this film. They would not hate it in a reactionary way like the recent Avatar backlash or on moral grounds or because it offended their basic sensibilities, they just wouldn't find it captivating. Without the cultural awareness of its greatness I think most people would stop watching the movie within 30 minutes and aggressively warn people to never see it. With cultural context 2001's reputation supersedes most negative reactions from people who actively dislike it or would dislike it as they assume it is a "quality" film and criticizing it would be like criticizing Dickens or Shakespeare and seen as a pillar of ignorance.**

*well I hope it isn't.

**Note that exception for this is among hipsters who can sincerely argue things like Christopher Marlowe is better than Shakespeare in an attempt to express their individualism through knee-jerk contrariness.

It takes time before for any art to gain classic status; in the present we are more inclined to judge it solely on it's transient merit. In the present the illusion of quality seems more significant than actual quality, which makes speculating about current films timelessness difficult. In 1996 The English Patient won 9 Oscars, the DGA and The Golden Globe for best drama; Seinfeld made an episode where Elaine became a social leper for not instantly loving this film. It was tangibly the best film from 1996. 15 years later it seems like the lasting legacy of The English Patient is that Seinfeld episode, while movies like Fargo and Jerry Maguire are much more culturally significant.* Granted this may have occurred because the proliferation of cable channels have made those two movies ubiquitous, but I think a large reason for this was because The English Patient dominance in major award categories gave it an illusion of quality.

* It seems like I know no one who has seen The English Patient. I can very loosely prove this by the fact I haven't seen a single person mention that Sayid from LOST had a large supporting role in it.

Earlier I mentioned that a lot of people wouldn't be entertained or even like 2001 if it didn't have its reputation and while I cannot prove this, I can compare it to relatively similar films that don't have its pedigree. When There Will Be Blood was released I talked to a lot of people who hated it one even derisively (and cleverly!) referred to it as There Will Be Bored. Obviously TWBB is not a clone of 2001 but it has a lot of similar elements, such as long dialogueless sequences that focus on barren landscapes. However it is much more accessible because of an incredible performance by Daniel Day Lewis and because its subtext is unambiguous. One word I frequently heard from TWBB detractors was pretentious, which has slowly morphed from an adjective into a brand. It is the one word that can destroy the illusion of quality. It used to say the only people that like this movie are smug overly analytical intellectuals of which I don't belong. Calling these people pretentious indiscriminately allows people to rationalize their own taste when they disagree with experts, who they will gladly defer to when share opinions.* Words like pretentious are rarely used to describe 2001 and instead are replaced by words like confusing or forward thinking.

*Sort of like how comedy is only described as misogynistic or racist when people don't find it funny.

The illusion of quality benefits accessible films in the present. After it was nominated for best picture and Sandra Bullock won best actress at the Oscars. The public started to believe The Blind Side was "good". When they watch it they aren't enjoying a shallow feel good Disney film they are enjoying an Oscar-worthy film. 10 years from now people will be surprised that it won all these awards, but for a short period of time it was considered a quality film. Conversely 2001 is a very inaccessible film, but as time and passes less people see it.* As less people see the movie its pretension will slowly morph into merit or importance. Older people who grew up with the film will likely only remember scattered details, but they will want to support their generation's art so they will fondly remember it even if they actually found it ponderous. The younger generation will grow up seeing 2001 in the list of best films of all time from the day they are born and never have a sufficient reason to dispute that claim. In the meantime films like There Will Be Blood are scrutinized, since a lot of people have seen the film recently enough to remember specific details and it has yet to reach a canonical status that makes it above reproach.

*It wouldn't surprise me that much to discover that more people have already seen Iron Man 2 then 2001

I don't think that is unfair; timelessness is an important quality when judging art and instantly anointing anything one of the greatest films of all time would probably be premature. However what if the greatest film of all time were released tomorrow? How long would it take for that to become cultural consensus? I suspect it would take at least 30 years and this is what intriguing about the dichotomy between TWBB and 2001. The elements that people hate about TWBB aren't acknowledged by those same people when they watch 2001, because of 2001's reputation. There is an anti-recency bias that effects how art is viewed, I noticed this on a smaller scale when I read best of the decade lists last year. These lists had a disproportionately small amount of films from 2009 on the list and while 2009 may have just been a weak year for movies; I think it is a reflection of society's reticence to prematurely add something to the canon. Films are in canonical purgatory are subject to more criticism by the public and this lack of consensus causes best and favourite tend to converge in the present, but once these films leave purgatory they evolve from best to Best and valid or not most people don't want to criticize Hamlet.

Format Change

When I first started this blog I wanted to limit the scope of it fearing it would become unwieldy if I just documented my ephemeral thoughts. While I still think that is true, I did create this blog as a relatively productive hobby and I didn't enjoy writing a lot of entries. Writing about TV shows as they air creates a deadline, which I'd rather avoid in a leisure activity. Other people do better and faster jobs of posting their immediate thoughts on TV shows as they air and I only really enjoyed writing longer posts that touched on more abstract issues, then if I liked the finale of 30 Rock. I am going to attempt to write longer pieces that will be about things I feel are interesting and unique and hopefully will not become instantly dated, as those are things I actually enjoyed writing thus far.

SNL Gabourey Sidibe/MGMT

Last weeks SNL was a pretty typical bad SNL episode and par for the course from the rest of the season. Probably not any worse than the Blake Lively/Taylor Lautner or January Jones episodes. The only saving grace was Bill Hader and John Mulaney on weekend update. However there was something about this episode that really bothered me and that was that it seemed like everyone on the show/audience were Gabourey Sidibe's parents hoping she would do well. A disclaimer I have not seen Precious and don't plan on watching it, I am sure it is a very good movie, but I don't feel like watching a movie where the best case scenario is it succesfully tells a tragic story and makes me unbearably sad. My problem was not that the audience was behind Sidibe I am not such a cynic that I dislike the idea of a live audience supporting a green host. My problem is that it felt like most of the support came out of pity or guilt. During this episode I was reminded of all the pre-Oscar coverage, where everyone*kept saying how beautiful Sidibe is. When I saw Sidibe on SNL and talkshows I was surprised at how bubbly and charismatic she was and it is endearing, but she is not beautiful* by any stretch of the imagination.

*Everyone including reporters for shows like Access Hollywood who are possibly the most vain people in the world. As far as I can tell there job is too look pretty and read a teleprompter without shouting offensive statements.

*Yes I realize beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but a large percentage of both the population would not consider her beautiful. I also realize that beauty can be used to describe inner beauty, but there are several other adjectives that can be used to describe that and don't have the same connotation of aesthetic beauty.

This sentiment is such a bullshit Hollywood feel good thing where people with nice hair and fake smiles get to pretend that they aren't in an industry where aesthics superficiality is rewarded. It's almost as if Hollywood is surprised that someone who isn't a 9/10 can add value to society and Sidibe overcoming obesity is the equivalent of making the NFL with a fake leg. If Sidibe is truly as intelligent and grounded as people have said I am sure she is not delusional enough to sincerely believe the claims of her beauty. Patronizing someone doesn't change the truth. This brings me to this weeks SNL. Last week I watched the SNL in the 2000's documentary and one of the segments was about SNL's willingness to make fun of anything, because they are a comedy show and being as funny as possible should be the priority. Alec Baldwin joked about his divorce weeks after it happened, they have had a recurring joke making fun of David Patterson's blindness, etc. however when Sidibe hosted SNL they bent over backwards to not make any jokes at her expense and throughout the episode that was the elephant in the room. I am not suggesting that the episode should have turned into 90 minutes of fat jokes, but if you are trying to make a comedy show it might make sense to have some sketches where the host is the butt of some jokes. People may argue that she is an innocent child and making fun of her on national TV is cruel. That is a fair point, but that hasn't stopped SNL in the past. They made fun of Britney Spears claims of virginity when she was a teen sensation, but I guess questioning someone's fidelity is funny so long as they are sufficiently beautiful that people are jealous of you and won't feel guilty about it after the fact. Others may say they didn't have any good jokes or sketches that would acknowledge Sidibe's appearance, but given the quality of the episode a couple token fat jokes probably would have been a welcome addition. If people actually read this blog, I think some people would get up in arms about this post, but my primary contention is this. SNL you are a admittedly a comedy show first, so you should be willing to make fun of everyone and everything patronizing someone because she is one of the few people in Hollywood who isn't drop dead gorgeous is insulting to that person and a bane to your craft.

South Park "200"

When I saw my first episode of South Park I was so young that I needed to ask my parents what a dildo was. So if you had told me 13 years ago that it would evolve from a show about 2nd graders who swore a lot into a cultural institution, my first response would have been "What's a cultural institution?". However if an 8 year old version of me shared my critical thinking skills, I would have scoffed at that suggestion, thinking that South Park would be nothing more than a funny offensive cartoon that would attract a cult following.

South Park eventually evolved from a show about foul mouthed children into one of the best satires on TV. Some have correctly suggested that South Park satire is too overt. That they often pick at low hanging fruit or lack subversion. I think all those criticisms are fair, except they are missing the point of South Park's satire. The ethos of South Park is that 8 year olds kids (albeit incredibly precocious 8 year old kids) frequently notice how bullheaded adults are about important while ignoring common sense. That ethos requires overt satire. Satire that even an 8 year old could understand, which is why South Park doesn't attempt to be more subversive.

Like most shows that reach 200 episodes South Park has been slipping in the last couple of seasons. It has had a couple classic episodes (Super Fun Time), but recently the episodes have felt derivative and sloppy. For those who don't know every episode is written the week before it airs, which I think has led to some incomplete episodes. In recent seasons many episodes have had no real B plot and those episodes have been one or two jokes repeated for 22 minutes. South Park has ceased being much watch TV and has turned into a show that has 3/4 episodes a season worth watching.

Going into the 200th episode I was very wary; anniversary shows need to strike a weird balance between not acknowledging the anniversary and turning into a clip show. I feel this show hit the sweet spot pretty well. It was not the funniest or most poignant episode they have ever done, but it was funny and brought back enough characters to make the fan boy in me ecstatic. While some jokes were gratingly meta, I think the premise of the episode worked a lot better than I would have initially guessed and they had a real B plot for the first time in weeks. Once you put yourself in this world everything that followed actually made a lot of sense and the show did a good job of using callback to make jokes instead of just having a carousel of former characters or celebrities appearing on screen. As for now I am really looking forward to the conclusion next week and hope it is as strong as this week.

Stray Thoughts

- Stone and Parker have both referenced showing Mohammed in "Super Best Friends" several times in interviews over the years, but it is nice that they mentioned it in the show. And while this satire is a rehash of what they have done before, I still think it is relevant.

- I never really liked Hennifer Lopez or Fat Butt and Pancake Head but I love Mitch Conner.

Treme "Do You Know What it Means?"

Despite or possibly because of its pedigree I was not particularly excited for Treme David Simon's HBO show that premiered tonight about post-Katrina New Orleans. After Season 5 of The Wire I read a lot of interviews with David Simon and one thing became abundantly clear; he wanted everyone to see his world view. The Wire's subtext was fairly overt, but as I read more interviews with Simon where he spelled out the show, I began to worry that he didn't think the subtext was overt enough. When I heard he would be doing a show about post-Katrina New Orleans I was very worried that he would rail against the incompetence of the managing of Katrina with the bitterness and bluntness of the newspaper arc in season 5 of The Wire.

Now that I have seen the pilot, I am able to reform my baseless speculation and I was very pleased with how it turned out. When reviewing Treme I will try to limit my Wire comparisons, but I am about to make one. Like The Wire Treme foregoes exposition in earlier episodes to maintain the shows verisimilitude. The lack of exposition did make the dialogue tough to follow at times, especially since the pilot was 90 minutes. It did require a lot of focus and it definitely could have been a little tighter. Given the depth of previous Simon shows it is possible that nothing was superflous, however right now we only know snippets about these characters and while longer arcs were set in motion to me the pilot felt a series of a vignettes. I doubt I would watch a series solely composed of vignettes in post-Katrina New Orleans, but I think it was a great idea for a pilot. The pilot felt like a series of urban legends and like all urban legends the truth is irrelevant. It doesn't matter if a DJ broke into Tower Records or an activist tried to throw a camera into the canal or a restaurant owner served a pre-packaged desert from her purse, what matters is we believe these things happened in this world. Once we believe the stories are true we are immersed into that world. Simon has once again managed to create a living breathing city and I trust that the rest will follow.

Stray Thoughts

- Tons of little stuff that was perfect or near perfect like having the characters speaking over the noise caused by passing-by helicopters as if they didn't' even notice it. This is especially jarring as an audience member who is accustomed to hearing the fluttering of helicopter blades almost solely in action movies.

- As someone who lives in a French speaking city I was very ashamed that I had been calling the show trem instead of tremay for the past 6 months.

-When season 5 of The Wire wasn't in HD I thought there was a chance it was because Simon was a luddite. I don't really care why Treme is in HD, but it is a welcome change.

-It was a shock to see Clarke Peters menacing scowl after growing so accustomed to the mild mannered Lester Freamon.

- Maybe the theme song will grow on me, but right now it feels like it would be more apt in Ethnic Mismatch Comedy 644.

Party Down Season 1

Eventhough Party Down was a critical darling and had a great cast of comics actors who I recognized from other projects I liked. I was still skeptical when I began the first season because it was on Starz!, a channel I didn't know existed. However after devouring the first season in a weekend and instantly watching the first two episodes of season 2 once they leaked online, I can confidently say the critical consensus was correct. Party Down is about a group of struggling actors/writers/comedians in LA who pay the bills working at a catering company. The characters all appear archetypal; the nerd, the pretty boy, the manic pixie dream girl, etc. Usually it takes a while for the audience to understand the nuances of these characters, however the characterization/acting/writing is so strong that it instantly becomes clear that these are not cliches. A good example of this is Roman on the exterior he is a typical sci-fi nerd writer in Hollywood trying to make it. What makes Martin Starr's performance as Roman so funny is that deep down he isn't a sympathetic nerd with a heart of gold he is a misanthrope who thinks he is smarter than everyone, while not being particularly smart himself. Similarly his nemesis Kyle is more than pretty boy actor who got through life with his good looks and charisma he actually has some acting chops and wit.

Every single episode follows the catering crew at a specific party and while this format may seem restrictive it actually gives them a lot of room to experiment and leads to some great guest spots. They can realistically change the setting from a sweet 16 party to the after party of the porn awards and explore a different subculture with new guest stars every week. Somehow they frequently manage to get well-established actors like JK Simmons, Kristen Bell and Rob Cordry to appear and the show and they all give great performances. Considering Adam Scott is heading to Parks and Recreation and Jane Lynch is on Glee it looks like the second season of Party Down will be it's last, but right now it is the sharpest comedy on TV .

Breaking Bad No Mas

After an incredible second season, I was very excited for the return of Breaking Bad and last Sunday's premiere No Mas did not disappoint. Season premieres often layout the groundwork for the rest of the season and No Mas managed to answer a lot of lingering questions from season 2 without feeling like a checklist and firmly entrenched the major conflicts in the upcoming season. From the first episode of the series the audience is forced to wonder when will Walt's two worlds collide and what will be the fallout when that occurs. This type of big reveal is usually saved for the climax of an episode or a season, but the premiere lets the other shoe drop very unexpectedly and we end up as surprised as Walt when Skyler finally guesses that Walt is a drug dealer (though Walt prefers to think of himself as a manufacturer). I think this was a great choice by Vince Gilligan as it really catches the audience off guard, but it still makes perfect sense within the story. We are only surprised because we know that we are watching a TV show where big reveals and arcs tend to converge at the same time.

When Walter admits to his drug dealing he assumes everything will go back to normal, Skyler will empathize with his method of paying for his cancer treatment and providing for the family and they can go back to having a happy life. While he is wrong I think Walt's delusion and rationalizations is what makes him such a compelling character. Cable dramas have created several complex anti-heroes, but I don't think any are as endearing as Walter White. For his entire adult life Tony Soprano has been a sociopath his motivations appear to be a combination of sadism and rational self interest, we occasionally find ourself rooting for him because he is so charismatic, but he is not a good guy. Walter White is not a good guy anymore, but he was. His actions seem somewhat justified given his history. A good friend created an empire off his ideas, he is working a lowpaying job that he is grossly overqualified for, yet he is a tough, but fair teacher, a good father and an all around stand up member of the community. He hasn't been rewarded for any of these traits and finally snaps. He is going to start to take what is his, things spiral out of control and at some level he realizes what he is doing is wrong. However like Tony Soprano he realizes on some level he enjoys being bad, but he cannot fully grasp this realization so he needs to rationalization his actions. The first shot of Walter in the premiere is him burning all his ill gotten money, before having a change of heart and saving it. He feels some remorse over what he has done, but at his core he is still rational, burning the money doesn't absolve him of his sins, so why waste it? This callous logic appears again when he speaks at the school assembly. It could have been worse, but a tragedy still occurred and he is downplaying it to rationalize his own actions. While he is saying offensive cold things we don't feel like we are watching a sociopath justify his terrible actions, we feel pathos for someone getting ostracized in front of a huge crowd. Cranston's performance is so good that we do not judge Walter we pity him

One of the most important exchanges in the episodes occurs when Jesse says "I am the bad guy". Last season Jesse was on the fence; was he a bumbling high school dropout who lucked into making the best meth in town or was he evil. Throughout the season we saw him feel legitimate guilt and compassion for his actions, something that Walt was incapable of and I expected Jesse would leave the drug trade (or Walt would kill him); obviously the premiere ruined that speculation. Jesse has accepted that he is the bad guy and I suspect he will start acting like the bad guy. This is in strict contrast to Walt who's delusion prevents him from seeing himself as a bad guy. However as an audience member I don't see Walt as the bad guy either. I excuse Walters behaviour just as he does, because he is still vulnerable. He is still trying to act like a drug dealer instead of being one. He cannot successfully lie when confronted with his transgressions and while he shows flashes of ruthlessness and anger it has yet to become all consuming. For all the awful things he has done Walt still has virtuous traits and while i expect his virtuosity to wane as the series progresses we still want everything to work out for him.

Stray Thoughts

- I am usually unmoved by depressing stories from characters I have no affiliation with, but I literally gasped and covered my mouth while listening to the drug counselor's story about killing his daughter.

- After hearing he would be a regular in this season I was disappointed that Bob Odenkirk was absent.

Justified

Despite getting really good reviews across the board and being a huge fan of Timothy Olyphant I was cautiously optimistic about Justified. I think that is because no review accurately contextualized the show for me; in fact I was surprised to see the show was set in the present and expected it to be set at the turn of last century. Justified is about US Marshall Raylan Givens a throwback US lawman in a modern world. Justified is a refreshing take on a cliche that works really because it is such a literal interpretation of it. We have all seen cop movies or TV shows that show what would happen if you took an outlaw mentality in todays bureaucratic world, however the only time we actually see a real outlaw and not just that mindset in contemporary society are in terrible fish out of water action comedies. In Justified you get the best of both worlds a true outlaw that could survive in 1800 and 2000, set in a place that time has forgotten, where people still drink moonshine and work in coal mines, but have automatic weapons and Cadillacs.

From the opening scene where Raylan Givens shoots a sleazy gun runner in a Miami hotel after giving a very literal request to leave town in 24 hours I was engrossed in the pilot. The rest of the episode was structured like a typical police procedural, but it was much more entertaining than most procedurals because of Olyphant and Walton Goggins' performances and because of Elmore Leonard dialogue that to paraphrase Olyphant from an AV Club interview is cool as fuck.

Despite being engrossed throughout I have two concerns about whether or not Justified can be a long running series. The first is whether or not it can be a successful serialized show. While I wouldn't mind if Justified ended up being a procedural, Graham Yost is intending on making it a serial and Few things bother me more on TV than poorly down serials. Careless plotting (Heroes , Entourage) can destroy good acting and writing very quickly and I have seen many good shows fail, but continually try to write compelling long arcs. As for now they have barely scratched the surface of the characters so I will take the wait and see approach My second concern is that a lot of the great dialogue in the pilot was lifted directly from Leonard's short stories, if the writers cannot recreate the aforementioned cool as fuck dialogue, a lot of the style the show created will be gone and we will be left with a mediocre show regardless of it's format. Having said all that I generally think most pilots are pretty bad; shows need to showcase all their characters and the pilots are usually muddled and uninteresting so the in the meantime I will remain cautiously enthusiastic.

The Pacific

A disclaimer I have not seen Band of Brothers, everyone I know has suggested I see it, but I haven't got around to it. I was planning on watching Band of Brothers before I started The Pacific, but I was at a friends as he started watching The Pacific so I decided to watch it, I was underwhelmed. Another disclaimer I generally do not like war movies, I am not a history buff so I don't care for or appreciate the verisimilitude of even the most accurate war films. My blood will boil when Dillon High runs the ball from the 10 with 10 seconds left, but even if I could tell the difference I would be indifferent if British Solider was using a Smith and Wesson.

The Pacific opens showing us soldiers preparing to ship out to war and to me the scenes felt like how people who didn't live through the 40s remember the 40s. I don't think they did this to juxtapose the inevitable war scenes, it just felt like a way to introduce some characters and develop a tone, which I didn't really care for.

Most of the dialogue in the Pacific feels like it should be in Kelly's Heroes and while I realize that 19 year old country boys getting sent off to war wouldn't be discussing Proust on the front line, it seemed like the writers were trying too hard to capture the banality of the conversations. I didn't expect to hear bawdy WC Fields jokes followed by musical theatresque fake-laughing.

Though it has cliche dialogue The Pacific has some very ambitious action sequences. Most movies want the audience to see everything so they can follow the action. The Pacific tries to truthfully recreate the battles by having many fights at night in the dark. The goal is too make the audience feel as uneasy as the soldiers, who don't know where the enemy is, however there is a fine line between making the audience feel uncertain and making the scenes impossible to follow. I wasn't watching on a great TV and my mind may change when I watch this weeks episode in HD, but I struggled following a lot the action in the pilot and often found myself incredibly disinterested during what should have been great action sequences.

A major reason why I am not a huge war movie fan is because they tend to have have the same moral: "War is Hell". Several soldiers are sociopaths and war justifies racism, sadism and other awful elements of human nature or even worse turns ordinary people into cold callous killing machines. I do not want to discuss the accuracy of the message, but the sentiment is trite. I am not particularly interested in seeing The Pacific illustrate the dehumanizing nature of war after I have seen movies like Full Metal Jacket that have done a much better job of it. I maybe holding The Pacific to an impossibly high standard, but given that they aren't trying anything particularly original, there would need to be near flawless execution for me to really love the show. Ultimately The Pacific's moralizing is not particularly compelling, but it is so overt that it can't be ignored. In the pilot the Pacific oscillated between being an ambitious, but flawed popcorn war-movie and an unoriginal guilt trip about war's role in society. I will probably end up watching the whole series as it is only 10 episodes, but thus far it isn't something I would recommend.

The Marriage Ref Larry David/Madonna/Ricky Gervais

After the first episode of The Marriage Ref was eviscerated by almost every single critic, I decided I would never watch the show ... that is until I discovered both Larry David and Ricky Gervais would be panelists. David and Gervais are two of the best comic minds in the world and I was curious to see if they could turn The Marriage Ref into an entertaining hour of TV. A disclaimer I am not a fan of reality TV, however unlike most of the internet I didn't think the concept for The Marriage Ref was particularly bad idea for a reality show. I certainly found it more intriguing than a retread of a competition or dating show, so from the outset I figured it could be decent.

Overall I thought this weeks episode was a very funny hour of TV, but it was only funny because of Larry David's misanthropy and the postmodernity of David and Gervais recognizing how absurd this show is. Larry David's unfiltered stream of consciousness was hilarious and while I am sure he only went on the show as a favour to Seinfeld his laissez-faire attitude towards the show is what made him endearing and funny. Gervais tried a little harder to actually make jokes, but he is such a great comic talent it never really seemed like he was trying any harder than I would when making a joke while watching a bad movie with friends. I find meta-commentary in fiction is often smugly clever, however I loved Gervais and David''s meta-commentary because it came from a real place. This wasn't a carefully crafted deconstruction it was two guys shooting the shit as they slowly came to terms with how odd this show is.

The oddly pleasant surprise of the episode was Madonna who acted like a normal person all things considered. As a 21 year old I am more aware of Madonna the infamous crazy person who believes in Kaballah than Madonna one of the biggest pop stars of all time and I have created a false dichotomy where she can only be one or the other. It was disarming, but intriguing to see Madonna doing anything sincerely and while her feminist rants became a grating it would be something i'd expect out of a lot of female guests in this environment.

A major criticism of the first episode was that the conflicts were too surreal and they all had clear winners. I think this episode has surreal conflicts, but they were all based in reality of classic relationship arguments; controlling mothers, relationship's with exes, a sloppy spouse. That gave the disputes a universality, having said that (sorry LD) I don't think the show would be entertaining without an all-star cast like tonight, there is still some really sloppy editing* and Bob Papa has a typical annoying upbeat host attitude, that makes me think he would be better served fake laughing on an NFL pregame show.

*Madonna had at least two jokes that clearly bombed and the producers tried editing it so the home audience couldn't tell it bombed. Instead we got a couple really bad choppy edit jobs. This may also be why Madonna appeared relatively un-insane.

Stray Thoughts

- Outside of being gorgeous I am not sure what the point of having Maria Menounos act as the celebrity fact checker was.

-How hard would it be to synch up the satellite feeds with the couples after the fact, given that the show is pre-recorded.

- This really should not be an hour long.

Saturday Night Live Zach Galifanakis/Vampire Weekend

Since SNL is usually at its strongest during election years I expected a drop off for this season, but didn't imagine it would be this severe. However there have been occasional bright spots and they had a lot of hosts like Blake Lively or Taylor Lautner who seemed predestined for a mediocre to bad episode, so when I discovered Zach Galifanakis was hosting I was excited. I am not the biggest Galifanakis fan in the world, but having a comedian host a comedy show instead of a movie star seemed like a novel development. Despite a very weak opening sketch (get it health care reform is unpopular! and if you don't get it we will repeat it half a dozen times) I was excited after seeing a very good monologue even if it was basically Zach's standup act, that is much funnier than most of what SNL has done this season.

Unfortunately my high hopes after the monologued were quickly abandoned and they proceeded to perform the same tripe they have performed throughout this season. One would think that with a team of writers and a cast of a dozen comedic actors they would be able to create more than one or two original sketches a week, but they haven't been up to the challenge. This week they had 6 sketches 3 0f them were more or less exact copies of sketches they have already done unsuccessfully. I am pretty sure they have covered every possible joke about over-affectionate families, Kathy Lee Gifford and What's Up With That.

The other sketches were a mixed bag. The bidet sketch seems like a funny riff that you would have at 3am while sleep deprived with friends. The idea that people would be so have a bidet fetish is a funny one-liner, it isn't funny as 4-5 minute sketch where you repeat that joke ad nauseam. The Situation Room sketch was a less funny, muddled version of this excellent Daily Show piece from a couple days ago. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-4-2010/tech-talch---chatroulette.

The pageant sketch was relatively strong, but it should be a type of sketch they are regularly pumping out and not the highlight of the show. It allowed Zach Galifanakis, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig to showcase their talent in some funny moments, even though they cracked near the end of the sketch. This ended very abruptly and it got me thinking that SNL does a lot of fake talk shows and game shows because they don't need a to write a good ending since they can just end the show or go to commercial break.

After this episode I am convinced SNL maybe the most creatively bankrupt show on TV, in the old days of SNL the cast was constantly doing drugs, which would be a reasonable excuse for recycling a bunch of bad sketches, but this cast just seems lazy, uncreative and insular. It amazes me that they get hosts like Joseph Gordon Levitt or Zach G who in another world could have been stars on SNL, but they just force them into their formulaic sketches instead of using their talent productively. If DVR didn't allow me to fast forward through a bunch of sketches and crank through an episode like 30 minutes I would stop watching SNL on a regular basis.

Stray Thoughts

- Kenan as Mo'Nique, gee what a surprise Kenan is in drag playing, I can't wait to see that happen next week.

- Wolf Blitzer at Burning Man

- At least Vampire Weekend was a solid musical act.

Community and Parks and Recreation

Community "Physical Education"

After the Olympics I was craving for NBC Thursday and Physical Education gave me what I was missing for two weeks. Physical Education could be my favorite episode of the series thus far, two really strong plots, tons of funny one liners and some good character work. Earlier I blogged about how I liked Community's subtle twists on formulaic sitcom plots so long as they aren't winking too much at the camera. Physical Education successfully achieved that in both of their stories. The Abed plot sets itself for the cliche, "just be yourself" plot and veers towards the obvious cynical twist. You can be yourself in the world of family sitcoms where mean things happens solely so everyone can learn a lesson, but in the real world conformity is necessary. As I watched this unfold I felt the plot uninspired, but succeeded because of all the jokes along the way, however I didn't anticipate the final wrinkle. Abed was never acting like himself and he was doing it to appease his friends who are so sure there is something wrong with him. It's easy to view Abed as pop culture references machine, but episodes like this show that he has some elements of a real person and isn't just a quirky funny sitcom character.

The other plot was an outrageous, but hilarious parody on cliche sports movies. Though Community has shown it has a heart, it is at its funniest when it is as its most absurd. Dan Harmon has created such a crazy environment at Greendale that it seems like any character can reasonably inhabit it; even a senior citizen pool teacher who insists all of his class wears tight gym shorts for increased mobility. However in spite of it's insanity Greendale is still endearing. It makes sense that Jeff would start embracing this Community instead of just making cynical comments at everyone's expense. While I wouldn't want to be there forever Greendale does look like it would be a lot of fun and we can see that Jeff really enjoys the spectacle of the pool game. Similar to the debate episode, I thought it was a really strong choice to attach the ludicrous views of the coach to the game of pool. Pool is always portrayed as a tense, cerebral game and it was delightful to see Community's manic version of strip pool, that led to several hilarious sight gags and crowd reaction shots.

Stray Thoughts

-The original joke and all the callback from Shirley wondering if white people got offended that they remade black movies specifically for white audiences was executed perfectly. Starting with Jeff calling Fat Albert the black after school special and continuing with Brown Joey and White Abed.

- Abed as Don Draper hitting on Annie/Trudy Campbell was fantastic.

Parks and Recreation "Lady of the Year"

Despite The Office having an hour long baby episode tonight, I wasn't that enthused to watch it and after Lady of the Year I have a hypothesis for why that might be the case. The Office has frequently used outsiders as an audience surrogate, they are the minority who realizes how wacky and zany all these characters are so hilarity ensues. The peripheral characters on Parks and Rec are often equally if not more insane than the cast members allowing us to empathize with Leslie Knope for having to deal with militant soccer coaches or feminists who sell out for transient publicity. In bad episodes of The Office I find myself pitying the cast members and empathize with the periphery, over time this has caused me to become resentful of a lot of the characters.

Ron Swanson has a strong sense of humanity and decency that allows us to like him and not just laugh at him. He showed this compassion in the pre-olympic Valentines Day episode and continued to show it in this episode. He has a lot of fun playing with Leslie, but never does anything especially mean spirited just a bunch of harmless pranks that rile Leslie up. While elaborate pranks are often funny, sometimes simple ones are much more effective and I enjoyed watching Ron getting under Leslie's skin so much when the most elaborate thing he did was hiring a photo crew.

Stray Thoughts

- I would go to a club called clubadubdub

-"Andy why are you digging that hole in the backyard?"

Skins Season 4

About a year ago a friend of mine recommended the British high school drama Skins to me. He told me it got rid of all the typical high school cliches in film and television and was a compelling groundbreaking show. He mentioned that they didn't present drug use and sex as taboo, but as facts of life without moralizing; I was intrigued. I pictured a version of Freaks and Geeks where they focused on the cool kids with a little less humour and a little more drama. That is not what I got. I got The OC with british actors who actually looked 17-18 instead of being 25 year olds playing high schoolers.

The above description isn't all that bad it wasn't the magnum opus I was expecting, but it could be a fun compelling diversion and considering I have watched 7 seasons of 24 and am still watching new episodes of Entourage Skins was at times a pleasant addition to my TV cycle. Skins is a mercurial show that managed to occasionally create nice moments between characters that captured high school in a real way only to ruin them with soap opera cliches. Characters sleeping with teachers, 14 year olds performing sexual espionage, characters dying or getting terminally every month. In the second season one of the characters father a archetypal middle-aged blue collar man who wishes his life worked out differently, finally confronts his more successful family members and gets the redemption he wanted his whole life. It is a nice real albeit slightly melodramatic character driven moment that lets the audience empathize with the characters. However Skins the writers aren't content with just slight melodrama so either due to sadism or an addiction to melodrama the newly redeemed father dies from a severe case of Deus Ex Machinas. I was literally angry when watching this, because they just ruined a nice relatively grounded moment so they could create a cliffhanger that didn't really lead anywhere.

A common theme in a lot of high school shows is that adults are not infallible, they are real flawed people, which makes solving the existential crisis that is high school even harder for our protagonists. Skins does this, but it takes out it to such an extreme that we the only people that can sympathize with the characters are popular teenage girls. I doubt any audience member thinks boy it must suck to be a precocious teenager in a world full of adults who you are much more talented then. You aren't supposed to sympathize with the characters, you are supposed to envy them, which really enforces the oldest high school stereotype ever, you want to be one of the cool kids. Frankly I think the creators of the show, wish they were the cool kids in high school and are now trying live vicariously through these characters and become cool dads. In reality they are helping create a generation of people who are envy self-absorbed egotists.

Despite all of this I still watched the first three seasons of the show. Some of this was because I had a couple of long train rides and both seasons on my computers and because I like finishing everything I start. However on some level I did like the show, it was good enough to make me want to watch the next episodes out of general curiosity while my critical rage merely simmered and it has enough attractive high school girls that I didn't feel like it was a complete waste of time (though it did make me feel a little creepy), until I started season 4.

Skins has a young writing staff, an average age of 21, which explains a lot of the awful plotting and the reductive attitudes toward all adults. However they also have different directors for a lot of episodes and it seems as if each director is trying to show off as many tricks as possible. Season 4 opens with a longshot of an unknown girl walking through a club before she kills herself by jumping off the balcony into the middle of a dance floor, which seemed like an idea some director had so he could show off his limited technical process. After this tragedy the characters finally come to the conclusion that there maybe consequences to using drugs, but of course the characters aren't responsible for their actions (with one possible exception), it's all the fault of the sketchy clubowner for letting 15 year olds into his clubs. One of the show's strength has been it's lack of moralism, however when you decide to do it you need to implicate the characters, when you have validated their actions throughout the series. It is at this point in the episode there is a sex scene with a baptist choir chanting "I believe in your lord" ad nauseam, because there is no better way to juxtapose characters actions with religion then having ironic song lyrics literally screaming at the viewer so they have to understand this trite message. It is at this point of the episode I turned it off and stopped watching the show, likely forever. I just wrote 1000 words about a show I dislike and I don't feel like letting it waste any more of my life, so I am going to end this post as abruptly as I quit the show.

Friday Night Lights "Thanksgiving"

If Vegas allowed you to bet on what would happen in this season of Friday Night Lights "East Dillon beats the Panthers to knock them out of the playoffs" would have opened at 10:1. The challenge for Jason Katims et. al. Was to make that compelling and believable for the audience, while they sort of accomplished the latter they definitely accomplished the former. I literally stood up and fist pumped when Landry's FG went through, eventhough my brain knew it was going in. There has been a lot of misery and despair in East Dillon, but the writers are not sadists. Landry losing his girlfriend, best friend* and the big game in such a short span would be too cruel for the audience and the characters. So as soon as the score was 22-24 I knew Landry would be the hero, but I still cared about the characters and East Dillon so it didn't matter that I knew it was coming.

* Yes him and Saracen patched things up, but as lots of friends do I expect them to lose touch as life gets in the way.

As usual Coach and Mrs. Coach are the backbone of the show and while it wasn't necessarily the pragmatic thing to do it was nice to see Mrs. Coach go off book, because she knows she's right. Kyle Chandlers look of pride and worry at her press conference perfectly showed how I believe most of the audience reacted to her stand. I thought it was a little contrived for Tami to get the guidance counselor job at East Dillon so easily, but it will make next season less chaotic allowing them to fully develop all the arcs, so I don't mind it.

The finale also gave a happy and tragic ending to two of the shows staple characters Matt Saracen and Tim Riggins. Saracen finally gets the finale he deserved after seeing him sparingly since he left for Chicago. In possibly his last episode* Zach Gilford gives another wonderful performance; his banter with Julie really brings out the best in Aimee Teegarden, who has been hit or miss throughout the series. Little things like Saracen talking about Greektown or joking about Matt "deflowering" Julie created a bunch of little real moments that makes this show so good.

*He won't be a regular but it wouldn't surprise me if the last season ended in a big West Dillon vs. East Dillon game where everyone came back to watch the game.

Finally I would be remiss without touching on the tragedy of Tim Riggins, the season premiere seems so far away, but in season 4 Tim Riggins went from being a scholarship athlete to a felon. I knew they would be writing Riggins off the show as he is trying to pursue acting in films, but it still hurts to see him go. He has an incredible screen presence and charisma, in addition to being incredibly good looking. I started tearing up a bit when Tim saw Mindy and Billy playing with the baby and I knew he was going to fall on the sword. I started tearing up again as he walked into the police station alone, very few actors could elicit that emotional response from me from so little. I was expecting the Riggins brothers to turn on Mo, solving Vince and Riggins' problems, but like real life not everyone in Friday Night Lights gets a happy ending. I realize I have complimented almost everyone's acting in this blog post, but I need to mention Derek Phillips as Billy Riggins. He was always good as the goofball older brother of Tim, but he has showed off some good dramatic chops this season. His rambling apology to Tim and rambling toast at Thanksgiving dinner, were two great heartbreaking speeches that were compelling, but also difficult to watch because they were so sad.

Stray Thoughts

- Friday Night Lights does a really good job executing or putting a spin on typical sports movie cliches. The two best examples this week were Coach Taylors speech over a montage of practices at the beginning of the episode that literally gave me goosebumps and Coach Taylor''s Thanksgiving practice where the other coaches wanted to leave.

- Of course Buddy Garrity would deep fry a turkey.

- All of the new cast members have been very good this season and while the finale left a lot of open ends for Vince, Jess, Becky and Luke I expect them to all be addressed in the fifth and final season.

-I initially planned on writing this blog right after the episode, but felt so sad afterwards that I decided to do something else.

LOST "What Kate Does"

It's been awhile since I posted a blog. I don't like writing posts for TV shows a week after they aired and I have been relatively busy which isn't a great combination for whoever wants to read my thoughts on TV.

Last nights LOST was a mediocre episode, that I don't feel like commenting that much on. Evangeline Lilly is not a good actress and Kate episodes generally require a performance that Lilly isn't capable of giving. They also require the audience to empathize with Kate despite the fact that she still is a murderer* . Most of the characters in LOST have cliche redemption stories, but they are well executed and you feel happy when that character can correct their past mistakes. Despite being one of the leads the leads Kate hasn't changed at all. She is the same selfish, non-committal person and the audience is supposed to root for her. The title, "What Kate Does" acknowledges this, but I don't need a full episode to show me this is What Kate Does when I already have 5 seasons that do.

*Whose actions are less reprehensible then most murderers.

Before writing this post I read a lot of other peoples thoughts about this episode and it made me notice how many LOST fans are petulant children. There were problems with this episode, but a lack of answers wasn't one of them. It seems like people would rather have a textbook with all of the answers than a great television series and this attitude has been prevalent since season 2. Two of the consensus worst episodes of LOST are Expose and Tricia Takanawa is Dead. Both of these episodes are light on answers, but are entertaining hours of television that lets us see some nice moments between characters. They aren't my favorite episodes of the show, but they are episodes I enjoyed at the time and on the rewatch. In an era of DVRs LOST is one of the few shows that is appointment television, which has caused viewers to demand an unrealistically high standard every week. They want the answers right now so they can prove that they didn't waste 50 hours on TV's wild goose chase.

After seeing the reaction to this weeks episode one of my first thoughts was "Do these people learn?" Since the 2nd season most LOST seasons have had huge developments in the premiere followed by a letdown 2nd episode, yet everyone was completely blindsided this time. Cuse/Lindellof will wait until Episode 8 or 9 to do a Richard or Jacob or Esau flashback and everyone will instantly put that episode in the top 5 of all time. After watching this show for 5 years, waiting another week won't kill you, but treating the show like a crack addict who needs his next fix could.

NBC Thursday Thoughts

Community Interpretative Dance

Last week I complained that Community broke the fourth wall too much and after rewatching this week's episode I'd like reword that complaint to "they broke the fourth wall too overtly". When characters are literally winking at the camera I roll my eyes more than laugh. This episode had a subtler 4th wall break, which I really enjoyed. At the climax Troy decides the most masculine thing for him to do was save Brita from being embarrassed. Generally the motivation for this action is noble, preventing a friend's shaming out of pure altruism. Community flipped this on it's head my making Troy's actions selfish, since he knew the others would react as if his actions were altruistic. Another strong showing for Community, which I pleasantly discovered will add more episodes this season because of the Leno fiasco.

Stray Thoughts

- I am tired of the will they won't they stuff with Jeff and Brita, hopefully they will turn this into a Jerry/Elaine relationship and not Ross/Rachel relationship.

-Prelimiwow

- I have been spending too much money on breakaway clothing.

Parks and Recreation Leslie's House

Parks and Recreation manages it to be at it's best when it is really well grounded. I like being in a little world that thinks Indianapolis is a booming metropolis and the library is your biggest rival. This episode was less grounded than I would have preferred, but it still managed to be really funny. I thought they had a really solid tight episode before they added the belly dancer, fencing, etc. and I wish they decided to end the dinner party with good, funny human interaction instead of a couple of sight gags. I generally don't care for trials in comedy's as it is a stale contrivance that has tapped into most of it's potential humour. Specifically asking about a date in a trial is an old tired gag and something I really wish they eliminated at the time, however they did have a nice payoff with Leslie's talking head at the end. Similarily the respond to any question with a question is a gag that stopped being funny in high school, but Ron Swanson managed to make it hilarious. I think it worked so well because generally the hostile witness isn't good at asking questions, but Ron's proficiency at evading questions was really funny, ending with this little needle "Thank you Ron" "Are we done?".

Stray Thoughts

-Every episode I feel like I want to see more Tom

- "I'm going to need to refoliate"

- Ron bringing deviled eggs had me dying.

30 Rock Get Dale Snitterman

Last week I didn't blog about 30 Rock because I find it really hard to write about. Firstly I find it really hard to judge 30 Rock because I could watch 22 minutes of Tracy reading off a teleprompter, secondly because a lot of my reviews would just be listing 8-12 funny one liners. I think 30 Rock usually doesn't use their peripheral characters enough and last night gave every character a couple of solid jokes Toofer's attempt to name drop Harvard, which was later repeated by John Hancock, a couple of good Lutz moments, Grizz bashing dotcom's screenplay, etc. All of these elements led to what I felt was a pretty strong B story, some broad silliness with good writing that was very funny. My one problem with the B story is that they didn't give it a satisfactory ending, it was as if they thought the audience would forget about the B story once they went to the credits. The A story was pretty weak and I love Julianne Moore in almost anything she does, it wasn't particularly funny or engaging and I found myself waiting for those scenes to end a lot.

Stray thoughts

- As someone who hates all Boston sports teams, watching Boston jokes for 22 minutes was fantastic

- She's the female Kevin Mchale

Community and Parks and Recreation

Community Investigative Journalism

Most sitcoms take a while to find their legs, but Community has been an exception and has been the best new show this fall. Community is strongest when it is at it's most absurd with episodes like Debate 109 and Introduction to Statistics, unfortunately it's return this episode was one of their weaker efforts thus far. Like usual it has some very good throwaway gags; primarily from Pierce, but the whole episode fell a little flat. Meta-humour is very hard to execute since it takes the audience out of the reality crafted by the show, usually when people are laughing at it they are laughing because they understand the joke and not because it is funny. Community has successfully used meta-humour in its more absurd episodes, but in a fairly grounded episode like Investigate Journalism it became an annoying crutch for the writers. Investigative Journalism had overt, obnoxious meta-humour and I quickly grew tired of seeing Jack Black's character (literally his one character) continue to break the fourth wall by explaining the group dynamics or making other commentary on the absurdity of TV. This reached it's apex when he mentioned giving a winking nod to the camera, making the only meta-meta joke I have ever seen; unsurprisingly it didn't work.

Stray Thoughts

- Pierce's ironic t-shirts throughout the episode worked really well.

- "Troy's gotta point"

- I already have a huge crush on Allison Brie and than she does a "It doesn't matter"

- At some point I would like to see a final 30 seconds that isn't an extension of the Troy and Abed rap.

Parks and Recreation The Set Up

Earlier I mentioned how most sitcoms take a while to find their stride and P&R is a great example of that, after a first season that felt like a mediocre Office spinoff they started developing their own characters and it has become one of the strongest sitcoms on TV. The Set Up took a couple of cliched sitcom plots blind date gone wrong and boyfriend jealous of girlfriend's friend and managed to make them seem fresh. It is unfair that P&R will always be compared to The Office, however the one area where I feel they have already surpassed them is by turning Leslie Knope into a likeable real person a stark contrast to the man child caricature that Michael Scott has become. I like Will Arnett in almost everything he has done and I thought he had a very good guest spot with a couple fantastic lines my favorite being "I guess I am not as good a technician as I thought I should have noticed you're missing a heart". It was also nice to see Chris and Mark in a plot that doesn't pit them as rivals; they have gotten lots of mileage out of that, but I don't know how long it will last.

Stray thoughts

-I could have watched 22 minutes of Tom interviewing potential candidates for Ron's job.

Update

I haven't given up on this blog after two posts there just haven't been many new shows for me to discuss. I just watched the first third of the Monty Python documentary, which I really liked I heard that is is a little redundant if you have seen other documentaries, but I haven't and I love it.

I will be in the Bahamas all of next week, but after that I will hopefully be blogging frequently.