Saturday, December 22, 2012

Stumbling To The Alter

One of my favorite teachers ever taught me (and the rest of the class) that the best comedy comes from the "stumble to the alter" phase of a person's life. He meant that other than "family" sitcoms, the best time for comedy in a person's life is the time when they're old enough to potentially get married to the time that they're actually married.

This is why so many sitcoms have died or ended once it's "single" characters get married. This is why so many sitcoms have kept their characters in a perpetual state of immaturity.

In an ensemble sitcom, you can of course have one married couple, but as the other characters begin to pair off, the sitcom will sooner rather than later come to an end.

This is the looming fear of How I Met Your Mother. The whole premise of the show is leading up to the moment when Ted gets married. It can happen at any time. Now, on top of that, we have Robin and Barney paring off. Soon, the whole cast will be married.

Also, when characters in a sitcom begin to pair off, usually the "drama" starts to increase and the "comedy" starts to decrease. This happened to Friends. It's happening to HIMYM. However, it never happened with Seinfeld. Seinfeld was aware of where the comedy came from. He knew about the "stumble to the alter." He never messed with it.

The 2012 winter finale of HIMYM was really good. Despite Robin and Barney being officially paired off, despite the ramped up drama. I don't know why, but I really feel like HIMYM might just be able to break the mold and still be good after all their characters are married. With it's continued quality use of flashbacks we can always get a good dose of Barney running a ridiculous scam from his playbook, or Ted getting into ridiculous circumstances.

HIMYM has had its ups and downs as its characters have aged. There were times when I was really pissed off at the show and on the verge of giving up on it (hello three episode arc about Marshall's father dying), and yes it was in its prime during season 2 and 3 and hasn't been as consistently funny since. But dammit if I wasn't sold on the 2012 winter finale. I have hope that this show can do what no other similar sitcom has ever been able to pull off. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

It's A DVR Word

For me, it has become a DVR world. And now, for millions and millions of others the television landscape has changed. We are no longer tethered to getting to our TV's at certain times or on certain days. We are no longer forced to program our VCR's or DVD recorders and then hope and pray everything works out perfectly. I still have a picture of me and my college girlfriend wearing the tape from a VHS on our heads from the night the VCR ate said tape in the middle of recording the new episode of Seinfeld. Never again does this have to happen!

But before DVR's started catching on, television networks started bumping the ending of one show to the beginning of the next show closer and closer. This my friends, has done nothing but screw with my DVR. The DVR cuts off the final ten to thirty seconds of a show week in and week out. If I don't tape the next show, I never get to see the ending, or if I watch the shows out of order, I see the ending before I see the beginning and middle.

Yes, I know the DVR has a nifty little function that allows you to continue taping a show for one minute after the show ends, but this doesn't work on days when I'm taping lots of shows, and that wouldn't solve the problem of watching shows out of order.

For me, the DVR has brought back the joy of great sitcoms on Thursdays. I watch New Girl, Happy Endings, Suburgatory and How I Met Your Mother. This is what makes the DVR so great. It allows the viewer to create their own television schedule and watch shows on their own time frame.

So please, for god's sake, can we just contain a show within the time frame it's scheduled for. Is this too much to ask for?

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Entertainment Weekly Loves Twilight

No, there's nothing inherently wrong with loving Twilight, but what Entertainment Weekly did was absolutely ridiculous to the highest degree. They gave the credit to Twilight for everything that has ever happened in the world and more!

Hollywood's obsession with Young Adult novels? Thank you, Twilight. It had nothing to do with Harry Potter, nothing at all. Nope, it was all Twilight!

"Twilight created a tidal wave of interest in the paranormal-vampires, werewolves, zombies..."

Wow, what a sentence. So big and so flawed, it must be deconstructed piece by piece. Let's start with "vampires." First off, I guess we have to ignore the books here because if we don't, then EW crediting Twilight for Vampire Diaries would be all wrong because Vampire Diaries came out in 1991. But the real argument goes to a great show called True Blood. It debuted September 7th, 2008 and was a success for HBO. The first Twilight movie didn't come out until almost THREE months later. So, the credit for the vampire craze would belong to True Blood, not Twilight.

But don't forget, Twilight is not just getting credit for vampires, it's getting credit for ALL paranormal creatures here. So next up, we have zombies.The one-two punch of 28 Days Later and the remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2003 and 2004 ushered in the new age of zombies and began or reinvigorated many people's love affair with this paranormal creature. Over the next few years, a string of cool, new zombie moves came out in the theaters, but after four years, interest was beginning to wane and the zombie craze went underground for a while, living on in straight to DVD movies. Hollywood was looking for the next paranormal creature to bring back from the dead.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had been off the air for three years by 2006, and continued to have a dedicated and loyal following. So let's just rip off Buffy, right? Central female lead? Check. Fall in love with a vampire? Check.

What I'm saying is that a strong and logical argument can be made that Buffy deserves the credit for Twilight, Harry Potter deserves the credit for the explosion of Young Adult novels in Hollywood, True Blood deserves the credit for the vampire craze and 28 Days Later/Dawn of the Dead deserve the credit for the new wave of paranormal creatures in the movies.

A strong and logical argument can't be made at all that Twilight deserves the credit for any of this. Unless, of course, you're Entertainment Weekly and you just say it is so.  

Saturday, November 3, 2012

I'm Tired Of...

I'm tired of babies and all baby related things. I think television is in a baby booming phase because it seems to me that every show has some sort of baby or pregnancy plot. New sitcoms are being made about new parents; old sitcoms are having characters get pregnant, dramas are having the "big dramatic twist" be a pregnancy. I'm just tired of it all. There's a whole world out there without children who just don't care, but even if you have children, how many new and original jokes or story lines can be created about this subject? The answer to that is none.

I'm tired of my favorite (or any) sitcoms injecting "heart" into the story and or characters. Yes, I realize that How I Met Your Mother's audience skyrocketed when they started injecting a lot more heart into the show, but fuck it, when I sit down to watch a sitcom, the last thing I want to see is a three episode arc about one of the characters parents dying. It's called a "sitcom," meaning a "situation comedy," which means you put a character or group of characters in a common situation or location and you make it FUNNY.

While I'm at it, I'm goddamn tired of advertising agents on TV and in the movies. You would think half the country were advertising agents, because they're targeting this demographic so often. Yes, I get it, when you have a character whose an advertising agent, it allows the writer to easily have life lessons learned throughout the show or movie give him or her the great idea for the advertising campaign they're working on. It also allows for new and famous guest stars week in and week out. And no, lets not modernize this by switching to sports agent, Hollywood agent, or any other kind of agent.

While they're at it, let's also do away with characters on shows or movies being producers of some sort of show, characters writing articles for a magazine or newspaper, interns who somehow have enough money for a nice apartment in New York...

...Characters in a high school show who are going off to college far away from where the show is set. I mean, come on. We all know they'll be right back on the show next year, so let's just not fake it. But for god's sake, don't make their reasoning be for their boyfriend or girlfriend; that just gives too many high school kids bad ideas.

If I have to talk about someone, or reveal to a friend something bad I did to another friend, I'm going to do it quietly and when I absolutely know that the person I'm offending is nowhere near where I'm talking. I also make sure to follow the same rules if the evil gossip of my friends is anywhere near. That way they can't threaten me with the juicy information they just overheard. So, can we please do away with all characters who are overheard because they decided to open their stupid mouths when the offended person is in the next room.  

And finally, please, we do not need "this season on...." Just give me a 20 second teaser for next week's episode and be done with it. I don't want plot spoilers for the next nine months of the show. Just stop it already.  

Friday, September 28, 2012

Neighbors and the Other New Sitcoms 2012

Neighbors was weird. It was kooky, unique, crazy. There's no doubt in my mind it will be cancelled.

But I really liked it. For me, it was the best new sitcom of the season. So far, I have watched Go On, Animal Practice, The Mindy Project, Partners, and Guys With Kids. Neighbors stood out and looks to be unlike any other sitcom on television.

I know that critics are going to hate this show. People are going to write it off with Coneheads comparisons. It'll probably be too weird for a lot of people. It will lose a lot of viewers from its lead-in, Modern Family.

I really hope this show makes it.

Go On is okay. It has had some moments. I laughed more than a few times. This past week, the comparisons to Rachael Maddow were hilarious. I put this as the #2 new sitcom of the year.

Animal Practice is #3, but I'm not loving it or any of the others I have seen so far. So far, the monkey is the best thing this show has going for it, but it also has a really good cast, so I have high hopes for it. I do believe, however, that this sow will also be cancelled.

The Mindy Project has potential because of Mindy. She is funny and I loved her on The Office. But I don't remember laughing at all during the first episode.

I feel like there's been too many shows recently about people with young/new children. There's only so many new jokes that can be made about this subject. While I like the cast of Guys With Kids, I'm not impressed by the writing. One laugh in two episodes is not enough for me.

Partners was the most disappointing of the bunch. I didn't laugh at all and three days after watching it, the only thing I remember about the show was that I didn't like it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Revolution: Part 2

Revolution: As stated before, I am deeply saddened by the fact that Revolution is the only new television show I'm really excited about this year and I fear it will be cancelled at the end of the season. Revolution debuted to 11.7 million. This seems good, but most shows lose a number of people after the first few episodes. Let's say they lose 25%, which would bring it to 8.78 million viewers. I don't think that's good enough for a show like this to stay on TV. So this deepens my fear of it getting cancelled.

Second, the show itself: One of my favorite parts of any show or movie like this is the "shit hits the fan" moments. Think of the first 20 or so minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake or the first episode of Jericho or the first episode of Lost. Shit has hit the fan and the characters are trying to deal with it, figure it out or just desperately trying to get to a safe place before they can even think about what has just happened and how they will go on.

The show began with life in normalcy. Then, quicker than expected, Dad runs in and warns the wife that shit is about to hit the fan. He call someone up to warn them, but halfway through the call, the shit hits the fan. Power goes off everywhere. The words "Revolution" come on the screen in a Lost kind of way (which I love) and I pause the show.

Holy shit! This is gonna be awesome! The fan has officially been hit by a whole bunch of shit!

(Un-pause)  15 years later. Back to basics. Growin' corn. Burlap-sac-shirt-wearing kid. Happy little community in an old timey way.

Where's my shit hits the fan moment?!?!?!?!?

I'm guessing they're going to save those first few hours/days/weeks after the power goes out for flashbacks. Which is fine, I guess, but they still could've done that and given us at least one episode before the 15-year jump. The shit hits the fan moment won't be as exciting and nerve-wracking knowing how it all turns out.

I think they really dropped the ball here. That being said, by the time the episode ended, I had an overall feeling of enjoyment. It could've been better, a whole lot better, but it was fine. Good enough to continue watching, good enough not to be totally disappointed.

But good enough for the rest of America to keep watching? No way. I'll be completely surprised if this show is still on TV next year. I'll be completely surprised if the big cliffhanger ending of season 1 will be fulfilled and all of us who are left watching at this point get our time's worth.  

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Fall TV 2012: Revolution

Normally there's a slew of new fall TV shows I'm excited to give a try. Last year brought me Revenge, New Girl, Suburgatory, 2 Broke Girls, Up All Night, Secret Circle, Terra Nova, Whitney and probably a couple more I'm forgetting.

This years crop is bringing me exactly ONE show I'm really excited about, but even that show is a scary proposition. The show in question is Revolution. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for this one. What is scary though is that I have a deep seeded feeling it will end up being many things.
   
First, it will be like Jericho and every other post-apocalyptic show. I enjoyed Jericho, but the deep down, I know there is a post-apocalyptic formula done over and over. It is as following: An awesome and captivating first couple of episodes. Then, a whole shit load of really, really long, drawn out and boring character development episodes. Finally, if you have continued to stick with the show to the end of the season, you're usually rewarded by an exciting final two and a half episodes. This will all lead up to the next thing I'm scared Revolution will be. In the season ending episode, something really big will happen. It will make my mouth water, leaving me excited for the second season, which just has to be better thanks to that really big thing just revealed and because we finally got all that boring character development behind us. Then, in the final minutes of the episode, there will be a major cliffhanger.

And finally, after all that, the show will be cancelled and I will be rewarded and compensated for sticking with this show and dedicating too many hours of my time to it by never knowing what would've happened next.

This is one of my biggest problems with the TV networks. I have no trust in them to do right by me. Even the worst shows have millions of people watching them. And yes, I understand cancelling low rated shows is a business decision. But can't it be a law that all shows get at least a 2-hour TV movie to wrap things up for the people who have watched it? Is that too much to ask for? I'm sick and tired of being left to wonder what the hell would've happened next. 

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Lindsay Lohan

Sure, there's much evidence that the drugs, the crazy, the rehab, the botox are what destroyed Lindsay Lohan's career. But I've got one fact that overshadows them all: go back and compare Lohan's body of work as a voluptuous red-head to her body of work as a heroin-skinny blonde.

Yes, dying her hair blonde destroyed her career. As a blonde, she was forced to lose weight, effectively getting rid of her beautiful and wonderous curves. As a blonde, she became one of a million stupid blonde bimbos in Hollywood. As a blonde, she became nothing special.

Look at Emma Stone. She had trouble getting her career off the ground as a blonde. She dyed her hair red and all of a sudden, she's one of the hottest women in the biz.

Lindsay, please, eat a couple slices of pie, let your natural redness shine, and if possible, undo the botox.