As someone who attempts to write about television on a regular basis, I massively appreciate it when I read a great article about a TV show. I'm not talking about semi-witty yet bantering, superficial analyses on Joe Schmoe's blog (ahem), I am talking about real, insightful, and moving TV writing.
People Magazine's weekly mini-blurbs about upcoming new sitcoms or important series finales keep me entertained for sure. But writing about TV -- and doing it well -- is hard. It's just easier and much more fun to watch television than it is to read. So why would someone read about their favorite show when they could just sit down and decide for themselves? The only way to draw people into TV in writing is by being...perfect.
A recent article in Time magazine, passed on to me by my non-FNL watching sister, is the definition of this perfect television writing. James Poniewozik (please don't google him or you will find his TV blog which is incredibly more interesting than mine) brings the emotion of Friday Night Lights to the written word. Through pithy yet dead-on analyses of the complex characters and comparisons to other television, current and past, he shows why Friday Night Lights can turn any viewer into a fan of heroes without tragic flaws, a fan of high school dramas, and even a fan of football.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Episode 315
A favorite word among grad students is "intertextuality". One work never influences another work, there is just a strong presence of intertextuality. Well, it turns out that literature and academic scholarship do have have something in common with television (gasp!).
Intertextuality in TV has been all over my screen recently. Having finally started Mad Men (more to come on that later, I'm sure) who do I see in the first few episodes, but Pam's New York friend on The Office. And then last night, I noticed the guidance counselor from Glee as a possible love interest for Ted on How I Met Your Mother. This is not to mention more extended roles like Julie from Friday Night Lights' appearance on the new 90210.
And talk about TV casts taking on other roles: basically the entire gang (dead and alive) from LOST can be found in new dramas on ABC. And then there's the ubiquitous Freaks and Geeks/ Undeclared crowd that somehow find their way into nearly every episode of every sitcom ever produced, for good reason.
What's fantastic about this is that we all -- without a doubt -- enjoy watching a new character on a beloved TV show much more when we already know that actor from somewhere else. How many times have you said, "Hey, that's __________ from __________!" instead of being either completely indifferent or annoyed that they're introducing new characters?
Case in point: The other day, when I received this link, instead of thinking "why is my Vermonter friend sending me videos of horse racing?", I exclaimed "Hey, that's....what she said!"
Intertextuality in TV has been all over my screen recently. Having finally started Mad Men (more to come on that later, I'm sure) who do I see in the first few episodes, but Pam's New York friend on The Office. And then last night, I noticed the guidance counselor from Glee as a possible love interest for Ted on How I Met Your Mother. This is not to mention more extended roles like Julie from Friday Night Lights' appearance on the new 90210.
And talk about TV casts taking on other roles: basically the entire gang (dead and alive) from LOST can be found in new dramas on ABC. And then there's the ubiquitous Freaks and Geeks/ Undeclared crowd that somehow find their way into nearly every episode of every sitcom ever produced, for good reason.
What's fantastic about this is that we all -- without a doubt -- enjoy watching a new character on a beloved TV show much more when we already know that actor from somewhere else. How many times have you said, "Hey, that's __________ from __________!" instead of being either completely indifferent or annoyed that they're introducing new characters?
Case in point: The other day, when I received this link, instead of thinking "why is my Vermonter friend sending me videos of horse racing?", I exclaimed "Hey, that's....what she said!"
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Episode 314
There are a lot of things that happen on television that don't happen in real life (no need to list every single thing Michael Scott has ever done). But there is one thing that is so prevalent on TV and so seemingly natural on screen that it is spiraling out of control: on television, when someone has to tell someone something -- anything -- person one just goes to person two's house.
Exhibit A: Have you ever seen Coach Taylor on FNL pick up the phone when he has to whip Tim Riggins into shape or apologize to an angry parent? No, he just marches right on over to that person's house, sweet talks them with his sexy accent and then asks, "You u'erstand me?" Done and done, no need to use semi-modern technology.
It becomes even more ridiculous when it requires more than simply getting in the car and driving five minutes across town in order to complete these visits. Think about Joey and Dawson. Every time Joey climbed up that ladder, she had to have paddled all the way down the creek in her little canoe first. She very well could have just sent Dawson an e-mail (although this would have foiled her apparent plan to be as obnoxious as possible) but she chose to go straight over to his house and pull the old Clarissa Explains it All.
And finally, the most recent, and perhaps the most exaggerated house visit of all, is on Gossip Girl. How many times has Serena gone all the way from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn to tell Dan about something really unimportant? And then he gives her 'tude and she says "you know, nevermind, I shouldn't have even come..." and leaves. Um, 1) Duh. You could have just texted, we know you know how; 2) You're seriously going to come all the way to Brooklyn and then just turn around because some guy in a skinny tie gives you lip?
Now I know that Coach Taylor is a southern gentleman, and that Joey lives on the wrong side of the creek, and that Brooklyn is so much more rockin' than Manhattan (you just wouldn't understand), but come on people, welcome to the 21st century.
Exhibit A: Have you ever seen Coach Taylor on FNL pick up the phone when he has to whip Tim Riggins into shape or apologize to an angry parent? No, he just marches right on over to that person's house, sweet talks them with his sexy accent and then asks, "You u'erstand me?" Done and done, no need to use semi-modern technology.
It becomes even more ridiculous when it requires more than simply getting in the car and driving five minutes across town in order to complete these visits. Think about Joey and Dawson. Every time Joey climbed up that ladder, she had to have paddled all the way down the creek in her little canoe first. She very well could have just sent Dawson an e-mail (although this would have foiled her apparent plan to be as obnoxious as possible) but she chose to go straight over to his house and pull the old Clarissa Explains it All.
And finally, the most recent, and perhaps the most exaggerated house visit of all, is on Gossip Girl. How many times has Serena gone all the way from the Upper East Side to Brooklyn to tell Dan about something really unimportant? And then he gives her 'tude and she says "you know, nevermind, I shouldn't have even come..." and leaves. Um, 1) Duh. You could have just texted, we know you know how; 2) You're seriously going to come all the way to Brooklyn and then just turn around because some guy in a skinny tie gives you lip?
Now I know that Coach Taylor is a southern gentleman, and that Joey lives on the wrong side of the creek, and that Brooklyn is so much more rockin' than Manhattan (you just wouldn't understand), but come on people, welcome to the 21st century.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Episode 313
I am well aware that the majority of people watching the new 90210 were not old enough, or even alive enough, to watch the original. But what I learned last night was that I am officially not of the same generation of the new West Bev gang. Dixon, a high schooler, is dating a girl, Sasha, who is a few years out of college, like yours truly. He's upset that he always has to go to her place and she responds that she doesn't want to go in public or people will talk, and she won't go to his parents' place because, and I quote, "I am not sneaking in the window, Katie Holmes-style". Dixon then proceeds to completely NOT get the reference.
Does this mean that, while it would be semi-acceptable to date a seventeen-year-old guy, I would absolutely not be able to watch the same television shows as him? Maybe. More importantly, what this means is that the people writing for the new 90210 are of the Dawson's Creek generation. This is somewhere between totally awesome and really depressing. I write a blog about television and people my age actually write that same television. Although, people my age also have 14 Olympic gold medals.
Does this mean that, while it would be semi-acceptable to date a seventeen-year-old guy, I would absolutely not be able to watch the same television shows as him? Maybe. More importantly, what this means is that the people writing for the new 90210 are of the Dawson's Creek generation. This is somewhere between totally awesome and really depressing. I write a blog about television and people my age actually write that same television. Although, people my age also have 14 Olympic gold medals.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Episode 312
If we can all suspend disbelief for a moment here, let's just say that CNN.com reports news stories (though we have all known for a very long time that this is untrue). What I discovered today is that -- if CNN.com is a news website -- we are better off getting our news from The Office. This incredible program has been on American airwaves since 2005 (and Office Space -- a screen shot from which they use in the article! -- was six years before that) and just now CNN is reporting the premise of this show under the category of "Latest News". Latest news! "Four Obnoxious Attitudes in the Office" is the title of the article, and the four categories delineated are "the suck-up", "the naysayer", "the drama queen", and "the star of the show". Yes, these categories would have better been labeled as "Dwight/Andy", "Stanley", "Kelly", and "Michael", but that's not even my beef. Label it as you may, THIS IS NOT NEWS. This is -- if it's anything at all -- really good TV.
And in this really good TV, the office does not, as the author of this article claims, "lack an open bar and a karaoke machine". Kudos to the Scranton branch for finally laying that myth to rest.
And in this really good TV, the office does not, as the author of this article claims, "lack an open bar and a karaoke machine". Kudos to the Scranton branch for finally laying that myth to rest.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Episode 311
If you have fifteen minutes to spare, stop reading this entry and go to this site immediately. There, you will find a quiz in which you are asked to name the titles of the shows that accompany the top 100 television episodes of all time, according to TV Guide.
The first time I did it, I had the embarrassing showing of only being able to name 40 shows. It was not a good moment for me, I'll tell you that much. BUT -- without looking at the ones I missed, I let a day pass and took it again just now and I came up with 65. (I also missed 9 of the shows I had originally named the first time, so I am going to reward myself with a grand total of 74 -- you can judge me as you wish for skewing the results.) And as much as I hate to give you an automatic answer in case you try, but I think we can fairly say I named 74 out of 99, because one of the top 100 episodes comes from the GILMORE GIRLS (wtf) which I clearly was not going to type in as having made TV history.
Oh, and did I mention that by having fifteen free minutes, I meant five hours and fifteen minutes because you will inevitably get dragged into all of the other amazing quizzes on the site? Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that before you clicked.
The first time I did it, I had the embarrassing showing of only being able to name 40 shows. It was not a good moment for me, I'll tell you that much. BUT -- without looking at the ones I missed, I let a day pass and took it again just now and I came up with 65. (I also missed 9 of the shows I had originally named the first time, so I am going to reward myself with a grand total of 74 -- you can judge me as you wish for skewing the results.) And as much as I hate to give you an automatic answer in case you try, but I think we can fairly say I named 74 out of 99, because one of the top 100 episodes comes from the GILMORE GIRLS (wtf) which I clearly was not going to type in as having made TV history.
Oh, and did I mention that by having fifteen free minutes, I meant five hours and fifteen minutes because you will inevitably get dragged into all of the other amazing quizzes on the site? Sorry, I probably should have mentioned that before you clicked.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Episode 310
Watch this.
Then watch this.
If ever there were a time to say OMG, now would be it.
OMG.
Now, depending on how thoroughly embarrassed you are for crying at work/school/with no one else around, you can watch this to dry the tears. So good. Just so good.
Then watch this.
If ever there were a time to say OMG, now would be it.
OMG.
Now, depending on how thoroughly embarrassed you are for crying at work/school/with no one else around, you can watch this to dry the tears. So good. Just so good.
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