The MOTHER of all Lost Season 2 finale reviews
Satisfied?
I am. I didn’t find the finale OVERwhelming, but it was far from UNDERwhelming like last year’s cliffhanger. I thought it was nearly perfect. There was so much going on it’s still sinking in for me, but I’ll try to get through everything as quickly as possible and then on to the big talking points. Spoilers ahead! Continues after the jump »
Last-minute Lost finale speculation
I was told that in a television commercial for the finale, Jack demands that Michael tell “them” (who’s them?) what he did. I have to believe that if Michael’s secret gets out, he will no longer be trusted or accepted by the Camp. I see him choosing to be with Walt, who will remain with the Others, over a rescue mission that will lead him back to the Camp where they will be outcasts. I don’t think Michael and Walt will be completely phased out of the show, but they may serve as examples of how the Others recruit their members.
Last week I made a guess about a surprise death, boldly stating that Hurley could be on the chopping block. I’ve decided to add another name – Charlie – to the very same block. Redemption is a huge theme of ‘Lost’ and Charlie has certainly come full circle this season. He’s fought off the temptations of the heroin again and again, rediscovered religion, and made peace with Claire after their relationship deteriorated for the better part of this year.
Again, I need to clarify. I like Charlie and Hurley both as characters. Obviously, the guy that plays Charlie is somewhat famous for his role in the Lord of the Rings series, so I don’t know that they’d axe him. I’m just speculating – IF there was going to be a surprise demise, it could be one of those two.
Just about 6 hours to go. I’ll catch up with everyone tomorrow once it’s all sunk in.
Lost: Eko and Locke take a trip
Eko and Locke take a tour of the island, and discover even more of its secrets.
This review is pretty heavy on the summary, but I’ve put together a few pretty good observations. We’ve got pictures aplenty for your forensic pleasure. The usual spoiler disclaimers apply, so if you haven’t seen it yet, I’d stay away. Otherwise, dig in! Continues after the jump »
Hanso Foundation strikes back at ‘Bad Twin’
The Hanso Foundation, the organization behind the mysterious Dharma Initiative, has issued an ad in major newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, attacking the new book “Bad Twin,” by author Gary Troup, who has not been seen since Oceanic Airlines flight 815 disappeared over the South Pacific en route from Sydney to Los Angeles.
The organization claims that “Bad Twin” is filled with misinformation regarding Hanso and its partners. For more information on The Hanso Foundation, visit their Web site. Hyperion has more information on “Bad Twin.”
Michael returns with a bang to ‘Lost’
Wes is off this week for finals, so I’ll be filling in. If you haven’t watched this episode yet, and don’t want it to be ruined, just stop reading. Any complaints about how now the episode is ruined for you will only serve to get you mocked. With that said, here we go… Continues after the jump »
When Bernard met Rose
S.O.S. - 2.19
Rose-Bernard Centric
Rose and Bernard got their moment in the sun with a backstory revealing how they came together, Rose’s bad timing, and how they ended up on Oceanic Flight 815. And it was okay. Review! Continues after the jump »
Hurley loses his mind
2.18. - Dave
Hurley-Centric
Why are the cute ones always so crazy?
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a Hurley episode, and it’s been longer still since we first found out he was in a mental institution. A lot of Hurley information was finally revealed in this episode, along with some new bits egarding “Henry” and the hatch. But first, review! Continues after the jump »
Lost: Season 2, Episode 17 review
Fool me once, Henry Gale, shame on you…
Fool me twice and Sayid is going to drop the Iraqi Hammer on that ass! Review! Continues after the jump »
Your cable TV just got a little more obsolete
Apple has been adding new TV shows to the iTunes Music Store like crazy these days, and some of the best content has been coming from Comedy Central. TUAW spotted The Showbiz Show, which joins a whole bunch of other stuff like Comedy Central Stand-Up, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, South Park, Drawn Together, and a ton of other stuff. The season/monthly passes are a good idea, if you really need to see only one or two shows, because after that, you’re throwing your money away, since cable isn’t that expensive.
There’s some more Disney/ABC content up now too, including long-overdue season passes for Desperate Housewives and Lost.
Geeks’ paradise
Ricky Gervais’ much-anticipated episode of “The Simpsons” airs tonight on FOX at 8 p.m. “The Office” creator wrote the show, and also stars in it as Charles, a man who engages in a reality TV-style wife swap with Homer.
If Gervais wasn’t the scribe behind this show, I might have found myself watching Dickie V scream about the Final Four tonight, as I find this “Simpsons” premise to be a bit tired. Then again, the premises are never what make “The Simpsons” funny — it’s more the situations, characters, dialogue and one-liners like, “Don’t have a cow, man.”
UPDATE: Eh.
I loved the plasma high definition screen party at Lenny’s pad (and Homer’s ensuing infatuation), but overall the episode was a bit disappointing. Gervais just seemed to resurrect David Brent with his character.
Lost: Season 2, Episode 16
I waited three weeks for that?
Okay, so Lost wasn’t exactly up to par last night, but next week looks sweet. And with any luck the week after that will be sweet, then we’ll only have to suffer through one more break before a season-ending string of weekly episodes to carry us into the summer break. Continues after the jump »
The latest from Lost
Wes has taken over the “Lost” duties around here, but he’s busy with law school or some crap, so I’m going to post a few thoughts and ruminations about the latest happenings on the island. Continues after the jump »
New Lennon show promises to make you stupider
Here’s the setup: Some TV producers (not at Fox, if you can believe that) have a bright idea to make a show about John Lennon.
Last week, the producers of a profitable but failed 2003 attempt to contact the late Princess Diana, announced plans to shoot a new pay-per-view seance to contact Lennon, who was murdered over 25 years ago by Mark David Chapman outside Manhattan’s Dakota apartment building where he lived.
Wow, what a bummer that they couldn’t get a hold of Pricess Diana. I guess she was busy that day. Dead princesses still have busy schedules, you know.
The show will culminate as psychics, colleagues and confidantes sit at a seance table for 30 minutes surrounded by infra-red cameras that can capture any “presence” or spirit that enters the room.
Ooh! This sounds like science. This way, if John Lennon really does drop by, or if somebody turns up the heat in the room, the viewing public will know!
I know there’s a lot of people out there with money that they’re just dying to throw away. If you think you might be one of them, please, I implore you, send your money to me instead.
American Inventor
If “American Idol” is a little too beat for your taste, but you still yearn to see dreams crushed, “American Inventor” may be the show you’ve been waiting for. It’s on ABC, so naturally they have to sap it up a bit. During the two-hour show, they constantly pumped you up for the sure to be uplifting heartbreaking appearance from a 12-year-old kid. The entire show was packed full of emotions — everything from sad to… angry. Ok, so there were two emotions.
The basic premise of the show is exactly the same as “Idol.” Hundreds of people — some very talented, some just drooling morons looking to get on TV, and some very untalented — line up and wait to be judged by a panel of experts. Just replace bad singing with bad inventions and good singing with “why hasn’t anybody thought of this yet?” and you’ve got your show.
Some of the inventions were actually pretty nice. My favorite would have to be the sandbag shovel, because it’s probably the one thing I’m surprised doesn’t already exist in some form.
Check out the MAKE Blog for a full recap of the show, with lots of pictures of insane people and their inventions. You can catch the next tear-jerker episode on Thursday.
I feel obliged to write about ‘American Idol’
I’m pretty sure I’ve refrained from writing anything about “American Idol” up until this point, mostly because I haven’t watched it in two years. I was too crushed after George Huff’s loss to watch any more. This year’s competition is just getting out of the boring few weeks between the auditions where people with no talent intentionally embarass themselves just to get on TV and the finals, where people with actual talent sing tired love songs.
The first victim of Simon Cowell’s increasingly banal rejection speeches was 21-year-old Melissa McGhee, who forgot the words to the song she was singing on Tuesday night’s competition.
Don’t worry about missing out, because in true Fox fashion, they’re going to stretch this out until May 24. It’s just starting to get good.
Catching Up on Last Week
This week’s mailings included Takeshi Kitano’s Brother, Visconti’s The Leopard, and the final discs of Nip/Tuck Season 2.
Brother is Takeshi Kitano’s last, though probably not final, gangster pic. As always he writes, directs, and stars. This time he plays a laconic lone wolf Yakuza (hard to believe, but true). The twist is that it takes place mostly in LA. After his gang in Tokyo is decimated, Kitano relocates to the US to reconnect with his younger brother, now a small time drug pusher. In a matter of weeks, the trigger happy Kitano takes over a good chunk of LA. He also becomes blood brothers with Omar Epps, learns a few words in English, and ventilates dozens of mobsters. Things end typically for a Kitano movie, but he’s definitely upped the entertainment factor with this one. Films like Sonatine and Hana-bi are deeper, but there’s no denying the joy of seeing Epps and Kitano fuck with a old Mafia boss. One warning, the US version has been trimmed to remove some bloody effects. Thanks MPAA for keeping the art house safe for kids. 4 out of 5
WTF was that poem on ‘The Sopranos’?
Though my father and brother tried their hardest to spoil the first episode of Season 6 of “The Sopranos” through an email discussion, I was able to thwart their attempts with sheer will. Now that I’m all caught up, I don’t think it would have mattered if I read their e-conversation. If anything, it might have made me overanalyze it and confused the hell out of me.
A lot of cool stuff went down in the Season 6 premiere though, of which I won’t go into detail to spare those who are behind. But I do want to highlight the opening scenes (after the “Woke up this morning” jazz), which my brother informed me was a piece from late author William S. Burroughs referencing the “Seven Souls.” A discussion of the use of the passage can be found in the Tampa Tribune. Continues after the jump »
The Whammies Finally Got Him
Unfortunately, more news of the depressing kind, as Peter Tomarken was killed in a plane crash yesterday in Santa Monica. Tomarken was best known as host of the immortal PRESS YOUR LUCK, one of the most recognized game shows of the 80’s.
Tomarken was in my opinion, a very underrated game show host. I thought that PRESS YOUR LUCK was a lot of fun, and he added to that. As a kid, I couldn’t resist those cute cartoon whammies. Of course the fact that there was a lot of luck involved made it appealing, as skill or knowledge only played a partial role in the success of a contestant. Tomarken got to be part of one of the most famous game show incidents of all time, when Michael Larson hustled the show for thousands of dollars. Also, check out the whole of the Classic Press Your Luck Homepage. It is very well socked with fun stuff.
Melodious Mistake
Last night’s Oscar telecast introduced a new twist to the evening, one that was not welcome by most. This year, music was played in the background, while the winners provided their acceptance speeches. The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Richmond commented today, “not only was this monumentally distracting, it was also supremely disrespectful – rather akin to being played offstage from the moment you get there.” Richmond has a point, although it seemed strange to me that the cue to exit the stage would be music, when music is already playing. According to a source I spoke to at Capitol Studios, the music was only for the home television audience, and not played in the Kodak Theater. Either way, this is one feature that future telecasts should do without. This should join the other departed “innovations” of years past that have been abandoned, like the “Matrix” style camera movements used for pro football, or unbiased truth in Fox News reporting.
Lost Season 2, Episode 15 in-depth review
- Episode 15: Maternity Leave
- In a very Claire-centric episode, we find out that there may be more to The Others than meets the eye.
Hey readers, say hello to new contributor Wes Bain!
Massive spoliers follow, so if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you might want to come back later once you’ve seen it. Unless, of course, that’s why you’re reading.
— Chris
After a somewhat slow start to the first half of Season 2, the powers-that-be who govern Lost have finally given us something to cheer about. Continues after the jump »
‘Arrested’ released to Showtime
The New York Post is reporting that Showtime has picked up “Arrested Development,” which had been canceled by Fox, and ordered 26 more episodes.
OK, this show is great and all, might be the best on TV, blah, blah, blah, but I wonder if it can hold up under the weight of expectations of sustained excellence and the hype that has come with this media onslaught. To be honest, I think I’ve been fed all the “Arrested Development” I need, as well as all the “‘Arrested Development’ needs to be saved” stories I can bear. I like the run it had. I like where they left off. It didn’t become too stale.
That being said, I’m not about to argue against more episodes, thus more GOB.
But I’m not about to order Showtime either.
Crap Filter coming at you from NY Comic-Con!
Just a little heads up to our faithful readers that Crap Filter will be reporting from Comic-Con this weekend at the Javits Center in the Big Apple. What info will we uncover? Who will we meet? What free crap will we be guilted into taking? Stay tuned to find the answers to these and other pressing questions, because we’re assuming that inquiring minds probably want to know.
‘Show Me’ some news from two weeks ago
So the AP has picked up a story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about The Daily Show’s interview with Missouri Governor Rod Blagojevich interview with the show from two weeks ago.
I didn’t catch it myself, but apparently Blagojevich is the only person alive that is still unaware of the fact that The Daily Show is a comedy show and ostensibly one of the biggest cultural phenomena in the past decade. I can see how it would be easy to miss.
Blagojevich got a basic Daily Show interview, but since he was so blissfully ignorant of what the show actually is, he got all flustered during the piece. And this is news. Did I mention that the segment ran two weeks ago?
At one point in the interview, a startled Blagojevich looked to someone off camera and said, “Is he teasing me, or is that legit?”
The segment, which aired two weeks ago, also featured Illinois Republican Rep. Ron Stephens, a pharmacist who opposes the governor’s rule. Stephens has said he knew the show was a comedy.
“I thought the governor was hip enough that he would have known that, too,” Stephens said.
It’s not a matter of being hip. It’s a matter of being alive. It’s hard to believe that the governor of the “Show Me State” somehow managed to miss this. Maybe he was born somewhere else.
Loony Tunes in Power
We all know China is a bastion of human rights violations and government control. Political dissidents are routinely jailed, and even the Internet is heavily censored. (which means Crapfilter might not work there…those bastards!) But those things seem unimportant now, as it has come to light that Chinese citizens can’t even get their Jessica Rabbit fix!
According to an article in today’s Daily Variety by Steven Schwankert, the Chinese Government has decided that films and TV shows that portray humans interacting with animated characters are forbidden. Movies like “Space Jam” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” are apparently dangerous for the Chinese public. Some claim this is a move to bolster domestic animation production. If that is true, one would think they would just ban all foreign animation, rather than isolating human/cartoon interaction. Are movies like “Mary Poppins” known to encourage dissent? This government also banned the film “Babe”, because talking animals were thought to be confusing to viewers. Way to go China. Hey international community, let’s all reward this government for their lunacy by giving them the Olympic games. Oh wait…
Let us not forget that the U.S. states that voted for the government in power now (the one that likes domestic wire-tapping sans warrants) are referred to as “red” states. Just a reminder.
Good idea for a lazy sunday
Kind of weird that a show like “Saturday Night Live” even shows shorts, because, let’s face it, they aren’t exactly live. Still, they end up being better than the studio sketches most of time (especially nowadays), so I’m not complaining.
If anything, I want more, but more of the totally random ones I remember from the Will Ferrell era, like when a dog comes to his house to chase him around, or when he plays Glen Frey and he and Ben Stiller have a love affair. I was also a big fan of the short in which Steve Buscemi and Horatio Sanz run a pawn shop full of food. Am I the only one that remembers these? If not, please tell me how I can see them again because E! has apparently deleted them from their existence (We do get timeless performances by Shaggy and Ricky Martin though!).
Hold on, I just found the Frey short.
Of course, there are the obvious shorts that are outstanding, like pretty much anything from the “TV Funhouse” series and “Lazy Sunday.” But I’m sure there are some great ones that time forgot. That is why I plan on checking out a 90-minute compilation of some of the best at the Museum of Television and Radio in L.A. and New York. The screening is called “From Albert Brooks to the TV Funhouse” and runs through April 30.
NBC Blows Goats…I Have Proof
We all know the NBC telecasts of the Olympics are an over-produced, tape-delayed monster. NBC shows the sports in prime time, when most viewers are available to watch. In addition, the time difference between the United States and Italy is a convenient excuse for such coverage. And while this annoying trend has been going on without much incident for these games, today it hit a snag for me. The Gold Medal Women’s Hockey game between Canada and Sweden had been said multiple times today, to be “coming up, live”. Much to my dismay, I discovered online that the event was NOT live, and had already happened. I called my East Coast source, and learned that the game had been on TV there, but hours earlier. So perhaps it was live for the east coast audience, and now us out west hear are just getting the 3 hour delayed version.
Okay, I get it. I live in LA, and this happens all the time. Obviously, Saturday Night Live is not technically “live” for the Pacific Coast audience. But for some reason today this really got me thinking about my disdain for NBC. Once they were the pinnacle of sports broadcasting (think around 1994ish), and now they make me want to punch someone in the face. NBC’s annoying “athlete profiles” have been used less in these games, but today made me angry again. It brought me back to 1996, when the Women’s gymnastics finals were delayed, even though they were in the bloody USA. I unintentionally heard the results before they were broadcast on NBC. Kerri Strug’s leg ripping vault should have been an amazing sports moment. Instead, it was an inevitable bore.
I love the Olympics, I want to watch. But NBC is driving me away, much like John Madden drives me away from football when he covers it. In a perfect world, a sporting event could be, like most news events, covered by many networks, and then we would see in the ratings which coverage was preferred by audiences. As the system is now, monopolies of coverage are hard to judge. If NBC is the only one showing the games, and American Idol beats them, how is this explained? Does this mean that people prefer singing to skating? Or, like in my case, are people fed up with the patronizing NBC style, and simply want to tune away from the annoying robot that is Bob Costas? There is no good way to answer this. I am jealous of residents of places like Buffalo, where they can snag the Canadian coverage as well. I guess folks in Vancouver got to the see Gold medal game 3 hours before the Americans in Seattle, who live behind NBC’s iron curtain.
Nip/Tuck Season 2, Disc 2
- Nip/Tuck Season 2, Disc 2
- Secrets from as far back as last season are finally revealed in this block of episodes centered around fatherhood.
Christian fights for his adopted son and Sean has a near-death experience which prolongs his neverending midlife crisis in this block of three episodes. Meanwhile, Julia finally releases the secret she’s been holding onto for 17 years, and Matt gets a life coach (Famke Janssen). Spoilers after the jump.
Development, Arrested
Hey all, just a quick reminder that one of the great reasons to watch TV is (temporarily?) shifting off this mortal transistor coil tonight.
GOOD NEWS: Two hours of Arrested Development.
BAD NEWS: They’re the last two hours of Arrested Development.
Continues after the jump »
Super domes
Bald dudes have been kicking some serious ass lately.
If you watched “The Daily Show” last night, you might have noticed shiny-topped Rob Corddry, typically the best correspondent on the show, filling in for host Jon Stewart. Stewart is great and all with his clever wit and sarcasm, but the weird thing is Corddry was a breath of fresh air to a show getting a tad bit stale, even if his Hitler-Anne Frank joke went over like Danish cartoons in the Muslim world and his Will Arnette interview was way too buddy-buddy (they do get points from mentioning the Burlington Mall though).
Now comes news that Corddry has landed the title role in Fox’s pilot “Becoming Glen,” which is described by the Hollywood Reporter like this:
“Becoming Glen” centers on a successful fortysomething man who looks back at 1994, when he was a 32-year-old slacker (Corddry) living with his parents and spending all his time lying on the couch watching TV.
OK, a little “Get A Life,” but still, Corddry’s involved. Continues after the jump »
Chappelle keeps quiet about disappearing act
Who wouldn’t want to know what’s up with Dave Chappelle? Well, James Lipton for one. The bafflingly old Lipton and Chappelle play a two-hour game of softball on the latest installment of “Inside the Actors Studio.”
The Hollywood Reporter has slightly more:
Why did Chappelle hightail it to Africa? He said it’s because the Hollywood environment is “a little sick,” and the more successful he became, the less he enjoyed it. In Africa, he said, he found anonymity, reassessed his career and thought about not coming back.
What made Chappelle decide to return? What’s he doing differently now? How did he resolve things with Comedy Central? You won’t find out by watching, but you will learn how much the comedian admired Bugs Bunny.
Ground breaking stuff. Catch it Sunday at 9 on Bravo.
Was that a real Madonna with Gorillaz?
I didn’t bother to watch all of the Grammy Awards last night, but I did catch the first half hour or so. The Gorillaz “performance” was a pretty neat trick, and I’m willing to bet that the illusion seemed more realistic to people watching in the audience from a fixed perspective, rather than the moving shots we got on TV.
Madonna’s performance was actually impressive too. The choreography was good and it seemed like she was really singing, which is a nice little touch, seeing as how awards shows are notorious for lip-syncing.
The part of the performance where Gorillaz and Madonna overlapped was a little suspicious, however. I wasn’t sure if that was her, carefully interacting with the animated characters from behind the screen or if it was a computer-generated material girl. Well, I did thirty seconds worth of sleuthing, and I’m convinved that Madonna was computer generated as well.
At first I just noticed that the computerized Madonna didn’t have the knee-length fishnets compressing those 47-year-old thighs, but when you look at the two side-by-side, there are a lot of details that don’t match. I don’t think I uncovered some great conspiracy, but for those of you who might have been wondering, here’s your proof. The animated Madonna was still pretty impressive.
Tonight’s painful TV decision
I present to you three choices. As is the case on every fifth Wednesday or so, there are new episodes of Lost and Invasion on ABC tonight. Both shows got off to a slow start, but they’ve been fairly good the last few weeks. Normally, I’d say they’re both a solid bet.
Complicating things is the Grammy Awards. Normally this is garbage. I doubt this year will be much different. The only thing that makes it worth it is that there’s a slight chance that reclusive funk pioneer Sly Stone may show up, and possibly perform. Other than that a Gorillaz performance to be ruined by with Madonna and an obligatory, probably all-star, tribute to the music of New Orleans will be the only things worth seeing.
Further complicating things is the fact that Larry King has Jodie Sweetin on to talk about her meth addiction. I wouldn’t consider tuning in except for the fact that she aged well and managed to hang on to all of her teeth. Joining her will be the “men” of “Full House,” John Stamos, Bob Saget and Dave Coulier.
Choose wisely.
Nip/Tuck - Season 2 Disc 1
- Nip/Tuck Season 1 Disc 2
- Season 2 continues with Drs. Troy and McNamara turning 40. Don't worry, there's still plenty of blood and sex.
Before we get started, let’s get something out of the way first. I will not be checking the comments for this piece. Paranoia has gripped me since I saw the first episode of Nip/Tuck about two months ago —- I must not find out who The Carver is. I gotta make it all the way to the end of season 3 without seeing any spoilers, so talkbacks are a definite no-no.
‘Sopranos’ Season 6 snitching
HBO came out with the first official overview of the plot for Season Six of “The Sopranos,” which begins March 12, and an article in the New York Post has the tease.
“New challenges abound for Tony Soprano as his life grows increasingly complicated,” a release announcing the show’s sixth season stated. “Now that he and Carmela are back together, they must face the reality that their kids are no longer children, but not yet grown. And with [New York mob boss] Johnny Sack in prison, the always-tense relations between the New Jersey and New York families are strained even further.”
Yawn.
Hey, Boston Herald, do you have anything else for me, possibly involving the Boston Celtics somehow?
Our well-placed rats report that one of the show’s “big characters” is going to get whacked in Boston — known on the hit HBO mob drama as “Scranton with clams.” The hit goes down during “The Sopranos” sixth season, which debuts March 12.
Oh, but wait. There’s more.
Conan…in the beginning!
Because you like your late night hosts young and insecure, a poster on A Special Thing has uploaded the very first episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien on YouTube.
See:
-Conan fidget nervously with his hair!
-Max Weinberg looking 60 years younger!
-Jokes that would get applause breaks in today’s comedy climate fall on silence from a crowd not ready for what they received!
-ANDY! ANDY! ANDY!
(Thanks to The Apiary and A Special Thing.)
Revisiting “The Office”
It’s gonna happen. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant will break down and write an episode for the American version of “The Office,” according to various reports.
It should be interesting to see how American wankers react if just one British term is uttered, or if one joke that doesn’t involve a slapstick gag is used.
No word yet on whether Gervais or Merchant will appear in the episode, but it has to happen in some capacity, right? Michael Scott has to meet up with David Brent. I mean, Jason has already met Freddy and Alien has faced Predator.
Bad Tasting Beer Produces Ad in Bad Taste
Of course no one is reading this site right now; they are all watching the Superbowl. And thus they probably just saw the new Bud Light commercial. In said commercial, a grizzly bear is chasing two men through the woods. One man offers the bear a Bud Light, which the bear seems to like. But before the bear can accept the gift, the other man steals the beer, leaving his friend to certain doom.
It was immediately apparent that the producers of this commercial chose an actor that bears (no pun intended) a striking resemblance to Timothy Treadwell. Treadwell was killed by a grizzly in October of 2003. He was the subject of the recent film GRIZZLY MAN. 
There is no way Bud Light can claim that they had no idea about this resemblance. So logically, they must have planned it this way on purpose. I am going to say flat out that this is not a funny choice. This man was eaten by bears, and the implied joke is that maybe a Bud Light could have saved him? And for those who say that this is all in good fun, I suggest you watch the film GRIZZLEY MAN before making such an assertion.
If you have a soul, you can voice displeasure to Anheuser-Busch here. And don’t forget to tell them that the ad also simply wasn’t funny. As Terry Bradshaw would say, “Not funny not funny not fun-nay!”
UPDATE: Here is a link so you can watch the commercial for yourself.
‘Office’ Filter
OK, I’m officially getting nervous about some of the choices Ricky Gervais is making since “The Office” closed shop, starting with his new, mediocre series “Extras,” which I’ve barely even thought about after watching the first season, and now the news that he’s joining the cast of the “Night At The Museum.”
Empire magazine has the details:
Paying [Ben] Stiller back for his appearance on Extras, Gervais will fill a small role as an uptight museum director in the film which sees Stiller’s night watchman unleash an ancient curse.
Already hired are Robin Williams, Carla Gugino, Kim Raver, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs.
Keeping it real gone wrong
Dave Chappelle is set to be the guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” this Friday, but don’t expect Chappelle, who disappointed millions of fans by bailing from his Comedy Central hit “Chappelle’s Show,” to get the James Frey treatment from Oprah. And ironically enough, don’t expect to get the truth as to why Chappelle dropped everything.
That’s because Oprah’s image was not tarnished, thus not put in financial danger, by Chappelle’s mysterious departure. Nor did she have any stock in the show doing well, unlike with Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces,” which was named to Oprah’s Book Club.
So expect a total love fest mixed in with softballs Friday, and big ratings. Anything but the truth.
Original British version = not funny!
Dear Crapheads, Geeks, and British humor enthusiasts,
Please don’t (cyber)stone me… but I have to say that the original version of The Office just isn’t very funny. I know, I know, it’s the original and therefore the American version is inferior in some way to it, but seriously… I have a hard time believing that the BBC version of The Office can even hold it’s on compared to the version it inspired in the states.
Now, admittedly I am basing this assessment on only two episodes, because that is all I have gotten the chance to see of the original. BBC America (sometimes carried by our local PBS station) aired several episodes over the weekend and I decided that I needed to give the show a shot. I found myself laughing out loud only once and barely chuckling at all throughout the remainder of the two episodes… in fact, at several points I felt like changing the channel to see if TBS may have been airing Friends reruns or VH1 had a Top 100 [insert anything you want here] of All-Time show on… but I decided that I needed to persevere because it would hopefully be worth it. Unfortunately, my perseverance did not pay off and I derived little to no enjoyment through my decision to stay tuned to this poor excuse for humor. Continues after the jump »
The magical world of ‘Variety’
One of the daily duties of running a top-notch entertainment site (I’m laughing a little bit too) is scouring the Web, looking for the best and worst of what’s out there. Basically, we have to find it before we can filter it. Sounds easy enough, right? Not so fast.
Third-grade grammar and spelling is rampant on the web as it is, and having to decipher pages full of “lololz ur 2 funE” is never as much fun as it sounds. So why would any professional organization intentionally make it worse? That’s a question I’m forced to ask myself every time I visit Variety.com..
For those unfamiliar with Variety, they use a seemingly arbitrarily made-up vocabulary of “slanguage.” which is pretty much just slang that they’re really rigid about using. Some of it makes sense, but most if it just seems unnecessary. “Preem” is a perfectly reasonable abbreviation for “premiere,” but in your head, you’re going to take longer to read it as your brain processes it and translates it. Imagine a trade publication about the pizza industry referring to pizza as “‘za” on every reference. It would be annoying — just like reading Variety. Continues after the jump »
Temper your excitement
Jeff Garlin is getting his own show and I don’t know what to think. On the one hand, he plays the best character in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” not named Larry David, but I just can’t see him being more than a supporting guy.
And I’m also not a fan of variety shows. Neither is America for that matter.
Garlin will shoot a pilot of a variety show, aptly titled “The Jeff Garlin Program,” that harkens back to the “Jack Benny” show of old-time TV. Like that classic, “Garlin” will have a show-within-a-show concept that follows the on-camera and off-camera exploits of a slightly exaggerated version of its star.
“I play Jeff Garlin, the biggest variety star on television, and pretty much the show follows me getting into trouble each week,” Garlin told industry trade Daily Variety. “This is the show I’ve wanted to do since I was little.”
Hmmm, kind of sounds like “The Larry Sanders Show” if you ask me, unless they try to make this totally surreal, whereas “Larry Sanders” was going more for reality.
And does Jeff have Tony Danza Disease? Can he only be referred to by his real first name in anything he does?
The PopoZao challenge
OK, so you’ve got two choices: you can either watch an MTV News clip of Kevin Federline jamming out to his new single PopoZao (which has surprising been reviewed as “incredibly horrible”), or you can watch a video of from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” with James Lipton of “Inside the Actor’s Sutdio” reciting the lyrics.
Choose wisely.
The Lazy Days
The watering down continues. As was the case in the past, Sportscenter anchors Neil Everett and Scott van Pelt are helping to drive what is a proud piece of high quality entertainment into repetition hell. On the Sportscenter airing on January 25, 2006, they used yet another line from the now infamous* Lazy Sunday sketch, saying something to the effect of “Google maps is the best”, “True dat”, “Double true!” In this case (unlike before) they both were involved in the quoting.
At this rate, we are going to doom the Lonely Island boys to never be able to live up to their breakout hit. Their Young Chuck Norris sketch was not bad, but already some are complaining about it being a let down. Of course it isn’t as great as the first, but that’s okay. If we were not grinding Lazy Sunday into pop culture overexposure, we wouldn’t have unreasonably high expectations. I am of course, guilty of talking about Lazy Sunday too much myself (since I do love it), but I am above reproach on basically anything.
* When I say infamous, I of course mean it in the way that El Guapo was infamous. (He’s so famous that he’s IN-famous!)
Dr. Pepper + Twizzlers = Not As Good
It never ends, does it? The progression of Lazy Sunday is not stopping. The uber-popular SNL sketch has reached critical mass. Now there is a new rap sketch circulating the web that totes the virtues of chillin’ on the west coast. It is not really a copycat, since they clearly state they are responding to the Naria rap. This is more like saying, “Yeah, you rap in NYC, well, we gots that in LA too dawg.” A cute idea, although a little bit of a misfire.
So what are we to make of this? Certainly in terms of quality, this is no Lazy Sunday. It is cute to see my LA landmarks and such (I adore Color Me Mine), but the comedy is not as fresh, and the rap is weaker. It falls far short of its predecessor. The more disturbing question is why is Mark Feuerstein making a video like this? He is not on SNL, and he is not an unknown/up and comer looking to break in. So is this what his career is now? Is he reduced to praying for T-shirt sales, since “Good Morning Miami” was axed, and his scenes from “Two Weeks Notice” were left on the cutting room floor?
Check this sketch out for yourself and decide which coast you like better. Despite the worse rapping, LA’s gots the bomb weather yo!
UPDATE!!-Here’s another new vid called Lazy Monday, this time performed by some cute little kiddies.
The CW rises
According to a press release coming out today, the WB and UPN television networks are going to cease to exist. In their place, CBS and Warner Bros. are announcing the advent of a “5th Network”, to be called the CW.
While the WB has improved over the years, I have just gotten used to bashing UPN! Now I have to learn new jumbles of letters to represent the crappiest of television programming! And how is the the “5th Network”? It is like they are admitting that the WB and UPN are so disrespected now that they are not even considered network television.
(Sigh) I am going to miss those UPN Girls…
Could Jobs be the next CEO of Disney?
Steve Jobs wants your soul. Trust me, he’ll do better things with it than you ever will. And he’ll do better things with Disney’s joke of an animation studio than they have in the last decade.
The man who co-founded and runs Apple and owns more than half of Pixar is set to become the largest shareholder of Disney. I haven’t done any math on this, but I’ve got to assume that this deal won’t make him the majority shareholder, so while he won’t technically “own” Disney, he’ll still be the 800 pound gorilla of the Disney board.
Published reports said Disney’s board discussed the negotiations Monday and gave chief executive Bob Iger authority to complete a deal. The company could announce as early as Tuesday that it will acquire Pixar in a stock transaction, according to reports.
So what does this mean? It means that someday soon, Disney might not be the festering boil of the animation industry. They can’t make a good animated feature to save their lives these days. If it weren’t for Pixar, Disney would be nowhere today. Their only saving grace over the last 11 years has been the fact that they’ve been lucky enough to attach their name to all the great movies that have been made by Pixar, entirely separate of Disney’s poison factory animation studios.
The part of me that loves Pixar is hesitant to see Disney swallow them up, but if it involves giving Steve Jobs any sort of control, I think it might work out for the best. If you appreciate quality animated features, meaning stuff that actually looks good (not this crap) and has a real plot and real characters, you’d do well to keep your fingers crossed.
Stay and watch, or don’t
- #1 Single
- E!, Sundays @ 10 p.m.
- Singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb needs a man and needs one fast, so she's enlisted a camera crew to help her find one.
Why, out of all of the mid-season replacement shows, am I reviewing “#1 Single”? Because it was on last night and nothing else was. And because Heather’s Graham’s new sitcom got canceled before I even had a chance to pick up the remote.
Nobody would have predicted Lisa Loeb to be a reality TV star since she hasn’t been relevant since her hit single “Stay” was released in 1994. (1994?!? Holy shit I’m old) But what the fuck, Hulk Hogan has his own show, right brother?
Loeb’s been out of the public eye for a while, even though she continued to crank out albums about love and breaking up and stuff. But now that she’s back, it seems like she never left. Lisa’s still wearing those black-rim glasses that make her look like a Starbucks barista. But I have to give her props for wearing them long before it was trendy and sticking with them. Continues after the jump »
The most amazing ‘Futurama’ news ever
You’re sitting down, right? Good, I figured as much.
Futurama lives.
You heard me right. There will be new ‘Futurama’.
This is straight from the keyboard of none other than Philip J. Fry himself, Billy West.
HERE’S GREAT NEWS!
Here’s the official word on Futurama!!
David X. phoned me about an hour ago and said that this Futurama project
is a done deal! Here’s the word from DX—-
There are 4 DVD movies that we’ll start recording at the end of July or
August.Full feature length FUTURAMA movies.
Everybody is excited to get back together—as I am!Into the Future,
Billy
West posted that Thursday afternoon on his official forum, so it’s about as official as it can get until you hear something from David X. Cohen or Matt Groening.
What’s my take?
This is as awesome as awesome can get. Yes, I’d like the series back on TV, but this doesn’t put that out of the question by any means.
‘That 70s Show’ is history; ‘Malcolm’ at its end
File this one under not-totally-unexpected, but the “That ’70s Show” will be history come May. Fox is cancelling the sitcom, along with “Malcolm in the Middle.”
“That ’70s Show” is never terrible, but the show sort of fell apart once Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher left. God, that sounds bizarre. It’ll have a long life in syndication, so fans of the show have that going for them. “Malcolm” doesn’t do too bad for itself in syndication either, but Frankie Muniz just ain’t the cute little kid he was in 1999. It’s good to see the show ending before they jump the—er, get desperate, and add a new kid. Oh wait, nevermind.
Meanwhile, there’s some new news on the “Arrested Development” front. The news is “don’t get your hopes up.”
Futurama and more after the jump! Continues after the jump »
‘7th Heaven’ is still on?
I’m proud to say I have never watched the WB’s “7th Heaven.” But a lot of you have been, or did at one point, because it’s been the network’s biggest hit during its (holy shit!) 10-year run. That includes putting the wholesome smackdown to “Dawson’s Creek,” “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and other teen dramas with insanely unrealistic dialogue.
Well, I hate to break it to ya, but the show is being canceled due to escalating production costs. The WB is losing $16 million this year because of the show. Featuring Ashlee Simpson as a cast member would have been enough for me to give it the axe. Continues after the jump »
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TV hosts make the news
First, Stephen Colbert of the Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” coined the word “truthiness,” which ended up being the American Dialect Society’s word of the year for 2005. The AP tried to ignore the role the fake TV newsman played in inventing the word and Michael Adams of NC State claimed that “truthiness” was already a word, but Colbert fought back by putting the AP in the top spot of his “Threat Down” and putting Adams “on notice.”
Now comes word that NBC late night talk show host Conan O’Brien could help elect the president over in Finland.
O’Brien has thrown his support behind Finland president Tarja Halonen (pictured) ever since noticing she’s an exact clone of him, except for the male-female thing. Continues after the jump »
Chappelle to stand up and deliver
Dave Chappelle will hit TV before clips from the infamous third season of “Chappelle’s Show” will, according to EURWEB.com.
Comedy Central is set to air a stand-up special featuring everyone’s favorite AWOL comedian that will run later this month.
The comedian, who walked away from his record-setting Comedy Central deal and successful television show almost a year ago, will return to Comedy Central on January 29th with brand new stand-up material, which hits on such topics as a black Santa Claus delivering presents on CPT, landlords using rent money to fund drug habits and sex as an Olympic sport.
It’s a good thing he backed away from his show before the jokes became too stereotypical and detrimental to his race. Continues after the jump »
Abuse of white power
And you all thought that skit from the first season of “Chappelle’s Show” about a white black supremicist was for comical purposes. Turns out it was a history lesson.
The Deseret Morning News explains.
About 25 years ago, Ron Stallworth was asked to lead the Ku Klux Klan chapter in Colorado Springs.
Problem was, the outgoing Klan leader didn’t know that Stallworth is black.
“He asked me to take over the lead because I was a good, loyal Klansman,” said Stallworth, who had been in constant phone contact with the Klan leader while leading a yearlong Colorado Springs police investigation into the Klan.
They never had a Ku.
Stallworth, who oddly enough lives in Utah now, still carries his Klan membership card, which is signed by David Duke. What would that fetch on eBay?
If I’m Stallworth, besides doing up the eBay thing, I’m suing the balls off Chappelle for stealing my story. Balls or whatever cash Chappelle has left.
Everything you never wanted to know about Alicia
Alicia Keys is one of those artists who wins gazillions of awards, gets her songs played a hundred times a day on pop radio, and yet I don’t think I know anybody who actually listens to her music in any other context. Well since you’re probably not actively listening to her, the powers that be have decided that you need to be fed more Keys.
The coming-of-age story will follow a girl from a biracial family. Keys, 24, was born to a white mother and a black father, who split up when she was two. She was raised in the gritty Hell’s Kitchen area of New York by her mother, started learning classical piano at six, and frequently ventured up to Harlem to absorb the lifestyle.
The story of a girl from a biracial family growing up in the gritty Hell’s Kitchen rapidly gentrifying Clinton neighborhood of New York sounds like it might be interesting, but why Alicia Keys? I hate the say it, but who the hell cares? Why take a half decent premise for a show and ruin it by attaching a non-compelling celebrity name to it that can only serve to limit the scope of the series?
For more fun with Alicia Keys, check out the Wikipedia discussion on her entry there. It makes me wonder if the show planned for UPN will cover her actual life, or the more interesting life that she/her publicist/her label have concocted for her.
One more celebrity gets ‘real’
Reality TV just keeps getting better and better — I think. It’s really hard to say what’s better and what’s worse. It’s hard to even say who qualifies for “washed up celebrity” status these days.
You can add Gene Simmons to the list of famous people willing to put his life on display.
= “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” featuring Simmons; his partner, Shannon Tweed, a former Playmate of the Year, actress and model; and their kids, Nick and Sophie. Dubuc described the kids as “articulate, funny and bright,” which contrasts with their “wild and crazy” parents. This project follows a one-hour special on Simmons that aired under the “Biography” banner.
Simmons, who is married to the aging, often-naked and sort-of-famous Shannon Tweed, joins the ranks of Nick and Jessica, Reverend Run, Britney and Kevin, Paris and Nicole, the Osbornes and about a thousand other quasi-celebrities who have decided that they’d rather act like asses at home than just perform, like famous people used to do.
I have a feeling that 10 years from now, the music, television and movie studios will have perfected the science of creating new hit singles, TV pilots or teen movies so the latest faces can get their first 14 minutes in, and then quickly shuffle them over to UPN and the WB so they can ride out the remainder of their 15 minutes of fame.
Get ready for “Crap Filter: Unfiltered” coming this fall on Fox.
LOST, New Episode, Wednesday, January 11- “The 23rd Psalm”
Welcome back, Lost lovers. Tonight, we get two full hours of Lost material. The first hour, titled “Lost: Revelation” will recap everything we already know about both groups of survivors, but will put it in perspective by lining the events up chronologically so that we can see the unwitting intersection of the tailies and the survivors from the fuselage.
Before we get to the brand new episode, let’s refresh our memories on what happened on the last episode, way back in November.
Continues after the jump »
J Lo’s new TV show opens to… reviews
Here are some reviews of “South Beach,” a new UPN drama produced by Jennifer Lopez (I’m sure she worked hard on this and didn’t just slap her name on it) set to premiere tonight at 8 p.m. EST.
Tawdry, empty and inept, South Beach is UPN’s too-late-in-the-game attempt to transfer The O.C. to the other coast. It’s the kind of new UPN show that used to make viewers dread new UPN shows, back in the days before Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris and America’s Next Top Model helped the network turn the critical corner.
Let me tell you what just happened
As ESPN’s Sunday Night Football Era comes to an end, so does the broadcast team of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann and Paul Maguire. Thank the Gods. This team has been tormenting us for years. Last week, during their last Sunday night game, they kept thanking each other for the years of working together, etc. Nobel thoughts, if they were a good broadcast team. Patrick is a competent play-by-play man, with a decent voice. But the other two (both former players) are just annoying. They kept coming back to Maguire’s “famous” line of “You know, of all the people that I’ve worked with, you’re one of them.” That was the most insightful thing said all night.
Phil Mushnik of the New York Post has a nice piece on the trio’s latest blockhead antics, as they observed the ejection of on Sean Taylor from the Redskins/Bucs game on Saturday. I watched this game, and Mushnik is right on the money. There was even a drinking game for this team, presumably to make the game watchable.
Now if we could get John Madden out of the booth, we’d be all set.
A fish called Will
I hate to say it, but you people brought this upon yourselves. By “you people” I mean those of you who decided that mixing Superman with Dawson’s Creek would be a good idea. Well you reap what you sow. And you’ve got another prime time superhero. I present to you your new Aquaman:
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Newcomer Will Toale, who appeared in the recent Broadway revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” will play the title character in “Aquaman,” the WB Network’s drama project based on the DC Comics character.
“Aquaman,” from “Smallville” executive producers-showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, is described as a contemporary reinterpr