Well, Glee had to flop eventually. I'm surprised it happened so close to the second-half-season opener though -- with all of the hype and expectation, I thought the first few episodes back would be killer. Last night, though, Glee forgot its name: the focus came off the show choir and their always fun, if cheesy, performances and instead went to some highly awkward and unfortunate solos and duets.
While the Kurt-Finn-parents drama panned out into a nice display of emotion by the end, so many of last night's twists and turns came out of nowhere. Within the course of an episode, Mercedes went from proud and curvy to insecure about her weight and then back to empowered and empowering. Finn's father-issues went from 0 to 60 (but quickly stalled) and Kristin Chenoweth returned with some major drama in her life that was completely irrelevant and un-relatable. And who was Schu even singing about -- his ex-wife or Miss Pillsbury? The fact that it was unclear was a symptom of what the rest of the episode was lacking.
You know something's off when Mike O'Malley pulls of the best performance of the cast. The only main cast member who had success was Chris Colfer as Kurt, who managed to draw some emotion from the out-of-the-blue plot points. Let's just hope Neil Patrick Harris can bring some spice back into things (unfortunately not until May).
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Episode 423
People care a lot about TV.
Case in point: The other day, I got into a conversation / disagreement over what word Ted calls Lily on How I Met Your Mother that upsets her so much. (The audience never actually hears the word because Bob Saget narrates it as "grinch".) In any case, we couldn't come to a consensus, so I decided to Google it and see what everyone else thought. And I found the most amazing thing: there were hundreds of discussion threads about it and everyone had different pieces of evidence to back up their various hypotheses.
In addition to people caring a lot about this obviously important issue, I also found that the viewers of How I Met Your Mother seem to be tamer, not to mention more intelligent and sane than the general public. Take a look at this amazing thread on the topic. Never before have American strangers had such a civil conversation about what is considered one of the more offensive words in the English language. Usually, it's the opposite: take a look at any YouTube video and without fail, the posts will devolve into some strange and unnecessary argument on a completely irrelevant and offensive topic.
I admit that a few hundred discussions about an episode of TV isn't that outrageous, so how about this? Over 12,000 people have voted on the People magazine online poll "Gossip Girl: Are Chuck and Blair Meant to be Together". Twelve thousand people (and counting) care about this. And more proof that the TV watching public is clearly of superior intelligence: 11,450 voted yes.
Case in point: The other day, I got into a conversation / disagreement over what word Ted calls Lily on How I Met Your Mother that upsets her so much. (The audience never actually hears the word because Bob Saget narrates it as "grinch".) In any case, we couldn't come to a consensus, so I decided to Google it and see what everyone else thought. And I found the most amazing thing: there were hundreds of discussion threads about it and everyone had different pieces of evidence to back up their various hypotheses.
In addition to people caring a lot about this obviously important issue, I also found that the viewers of How I Met Your Mother seem to be tamer, not to mention more intelligent and sane than the general public. Take a look at this amazing thread on the topic. Never before have American strangers had such a civil conversation about what is considered one of the more offensive words in the English language. Usually, it's the opposite: take a look at any YouTube video and without fail, the posts will devolve into some strange and unnecessary argument on a completely irrelevant and offensive topic.
I admit that a few hundred discussions about an episode of TV isn't that outrageous, so how about this? Over 12,000 people have voted on the People magazine online poll "Gossip Girl: Are Chuck and Blair Meant to be Together". Twelve thousand people (and counting) care about this. And more proof that the TV watching public is clearly of superior intelligence: 11,450 voted yes.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Episode 422
Last night, the final Jeopardy question, under the category, "New Sports," was as follows:
"In 2008, Middlebury College in Vermont won its 2nd straight championship in this sport introduced in a 1997 novel."
Perhaps not as exciting as the Middlebury shout-outs on 30 Rock, but we'll take it. However, I do want to lodge one complaint: Middlebury has so much more going for it than its damn Quidditch team. If I remember correctly, though I'm not sure I want to, one of our own actually won the College Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy not so long ago.
In any case, two people got the answer right, and one person missed it. But I would like to argue here that the person who missed it, choosing "snowboarding" as her answer, is perhaps the smarter Jeopardy player. Here's why: The only way you would know that Quidditch was the answer is if 1) You followed New England liberal arts schools' club sports or 2) You had read Harry Potter (which the Jeopardy demographic is not guaranteed to have done, unfortunately).
At first, I scoffed at "snowboarding" as an answer, but then I realized it was pretty intuitive. This woman thought, okay, what sports are played in Vermont? Something with snow. Well it's not skiing, obviously, so what could be new enough that it was created in 1997? Snowboarding! Although 1997 seems too recent to have been the birth date of this now Olympic level sport, that was, remember, thirteen years ago (scary). For all I know, snowboarding didn't exist when I was 12 years old. And for all someone this Jeopardy woman's age knows, it didn't exist until last year.
So in the end, it turns out that the people who knew the answer just had some dumb luck, while snowboarding woman was using her smarts. (And she actually wasn't that far off.)
The point of this story is for me to reiterate how obnoxious Jeopardy can be. It's like Trivial Pursuit -- half of the questions have the answer right there in them, and it has nothing to do with actual knowledge. I without fail guess more answers correctly on that show than I actually know. Last night's stupid-question winner? The category was "Bad break-up lines" and the question: (this is from memory -- I didn't take the time to pause the DVR on this one because of how livid I was) "It's not me...it's this homophone for a female sheep."
You know what, Alex? It's not me. It's YOU.
"In 2008, Middlebury College in Vermont won its 2nd straight championship in this sport introduced in a 1997 novel."
Perhaps not as exciting as the Middlebury shout-outs on 30 Rock, but we'll take it. However, I do want to lodge one complaint: Middlebury has so much more going for it than its damn Quidditch team. If I remember correctly, though I'm not sure I want to, one of our own actually won the College Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy not so long ago.
In any case, two people got the answer right, and one person missed it. But I would like to argue here that the person who missed it, choosing "snowboarding" as her answer, is perhaps the smarter Jeopardy player. Here's why: The only way you would know that Quidditch was the answer is if 1) You followed New England liberal arts schools' club sports or 2) You had read Harry Potter (which the Jeopardy demographic is not guaranteed to have done, unfortunately).
At first, I scoffed at "snowboarding" as an answer, but then I realized it was pretty intuitive. This woman thought, okay, what sports are played in Vermont? Something with snow. Well it's not skiing, obviously, so what could be new enough that it was created in 1997? Snowboarding! Although 1997 seems too recent to have been the birth date of this now Olympic level sport, that was, remember, thirteen years ago (scary). For all I know, snowboarding didn't exist when I was 12 years old. And for all someone this Jeopardy woman's age knows, it didn't exist until last year.
So in the end, it turns out that the people who knew the answer just had some dumb luck, while snowboarding woman was using her smarts. (And she actually wasn't that far off.)
The point of this story is for me to reiterate how obnoxious Jeopardy can be. It's like Trivial Pursuit -- half of the questions have the answer right there in them, and it has nothing to do with actual knowledge. I without fail guess more answers correctly on that show than I actually know. Last night's stupid-question winner? The category was "Bad break-up lines" and the question: (this is from memory -- I didn't take the time to pause the DVR on this one because of how livid I was) "It's not me...it's this homophone for a female sheep."
You know what, Alex? It's not me. It's YOU.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Episode 421
A former producer for Survivor is currently involved in bit of a mess. I read the article describing the situation (which sadly made the top CNN headline) and I couldn't help but notice the following paragraph:
"Beresford-Redman built his career as a widely acclaimed Hollywood reality television show producer. He helped develop the popular 20-season CBS show 'Survivor,' in which contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios."
Really?
1) EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT SURVIVOR IS, CNN STAFF WRITER! Or did the modifier "20-season" not tip you off to that?
2) "...contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios"...? Didn't anyone tell you if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?
It continues to amaze me that in a country where we watch so much television that it leads to obesity, people are still describing TV shows as if they're a Japanese variety sport.
"Beresford-Redman built his career as a widely acclaimed Hollywood reality television show producer. He helped develop the popular 20-season CBS show 'Survivor,' in which contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios."
Really?
1) EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT SURVIVOR IS, CNN STAFF WRITER! Or did the modifier "20-season" not tip you off to that?
2) "...contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios"...? Didn't anyone tell you if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?
It continues to amaze me that in a country where we watch so much television that it leads to obesity, people are still describing TV shows as if they're a Japanese variety sport.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Episode 420
After a too-long pause in posting (I'm just trying to emulate all my favorite shows, which take obnoxiously long breaks between episodes), I am going to take this opportunity to just catch-up with my top 10 most pressing opinions on recent TV that I've missed in the past few weeks, starting with the most important (so if you get bored, it's only getting less relevant as you read):
1) Is anyone else wondering why The Office did not take advantage of the most Michael Scott-ish of holidays in the entire galaxy to show a new episode? Seriously, Michael on April Fool's Day would perhaps be the most perfect context ever. The word inappropriate was created to describe Michael on this day. Opportunity majorly missed, The Office. But since you've been so good to me recently, I'll let it slide.
2) LOST is incredible. Thank you so much for finally giving us some answers. And for all of us who knew that Desmond was going to be the key to the whole thing, we're about to be totally validated.
3) Poor American Idol. The fact that I have Biggest Loser on a higher series priority than AI is a sign for the awfulness of this season. Not even Ryan Seacrest cares enough to keep the results a secret.
4) Is it seriously possible that Glee has only been on the air for half a season? Can it keep it up? I am very excited to find out. I think guest stars will be key.
5) So excited for the return of Top Chef Masters. If ever there were a show to get me to spend hundreds of dollars eating out at fancy restaurants, it's that. It was very uncool that two of last season's top three were Bay Area chefs -- I really can't afford this kind of TV watching.
6) I think Russell lucked out that his season of Survivor hadn't aired when they started taping the current season. If it had, he would have been the first voted off, and now it seems like he may once again make it to the end. And because we're talking about Survivor all-stars here, I think he might just get the vote at the end; these people respect the game too much to give it to some random coattail rider.
7) Camila Alves is seriously annoying.
8) Why is Rumer Willis allowed to act? She could probably even make "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" sound not bad-ass. If you haven't yet been exposed to her awful acting and want to continue that streak, avoid 90210. I know it'll be tough.
9) Less than a month until Friday Night Lights returns for us non DirecTVers. You un'erstand me?
10) Modern Family has still not lost its touch. Neither has Community. If they keep it up, we might have the Friends or Cheers of the 2010s on our hands. Or as some homeless guy in Central Park put it, the new Frasier.
1) Is anyone else wondering why The Office did not take advantage of the most Michael Scott-ish of holidays in the entire galaxy to show a new episode? Seriously, Michael on April Fool's Day would perhaps be the most perfect context ever. The word inappropriate was created to describe Michael on this day. Opportunity majorly missed, The Office. But since you've been so good to me recently, I'll let it slide.
2) LOST is incredible. Thank you so much for finally giving us some answers. And for all of us who knew that Desmond was going to be the key to the whole thing, we're about to be totally validated.
3) Poor American Idol. The fact that I have Biggest Loser on a higher series priority than AI is a sign for the awfulness of this season. Not even Ryan Seacrest cares enough to keep the results a secret.
4) Is it seriously possible that Glee has only been on the air for half a season? Can it keep it up? I am very excited to find out. I think guest stars will be key.
5) So excited for the return of Top Chef Masters. If ever there were a show to get me to spend hundreds of dollars eating out at fancy restaurants, it's that. It was very uncool that two of last season's top three were Bay Area chefs -- I really can't afford this kind of TV watching.
6) I think Russell lucked out that his season of Survivor hadn't aired when they started taping the current season. If it had, he would have been the first voted off, and now it seems like he may once again make it to the end. And because we're talking about Survivor all-stars here, I think he might just get the vote at the end; these people respect the game too much to give it to some random coattail rider.
7) Camila Alves is seriously annoying.
8) Why is Rumer Willis allowed to act? She could probably even make "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" sound not bad-ass. If you haven't yet been exposed to her awful acting and want to continue that streak, avoid 90210. I know it'll be tough.
9) Less than a month until Friday Night Lights returns for us non DirecTVers. You un'erstand me?
10) Modern Family has still not lost its touch. Neither has Community. If they keep it up, we might have the Friends or Cheers of the 2010s on our hands. Or as some homeless guy in Central Park put it, the new Frasier.
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