How weird is this balloon boy thing? As sick as I already am about hearing about it, I have to say this: I turned on my TV at work yesterday (benefit of working in TV - television sets at your desk), and saw this incredible thing playing out on live TV. I mean, you couldn't help but be totally glued to the TV. Was there really a six year old boy in this flying saucer-esque balloon? How would he land? How might they get him out? How did he get in there? What was that balloon for, anyway? There were so many crazy questions with regards to the amazing footage being shown. The whole thing was just completely surreal. So like many, I was holding my breath as the balloon finally touched down and a rescue team raced to see if they could free the boy. And then there was no boy. And it turned out that the boy was in his parents' attic the whole time, hiding in a box. And also, it turned out that the family has been around - they've been on Wife Swap, fer pete's sake. And they are all over YouTube. And they seem to be slightly insane - the dad thinks, apparently, that he is an alien half-breed.
So what are my takeaways from all this?
a.) Do I blame the media for covering the incident as it happened? No - watching a floating silver balloon fly over Colorado, with a six year old kid potentially trapped inside? - that's crazy, compelling stuff - you've got to cover it. But all the stuff after the fact? Not necessary. The media needs to self-regulate and recognize when enough is enough. Plus, I just feel bad for people who have been in a news cycle event like this and are suddenly forced to travel around and go on TV the very next day. Ugh.
b.) Was it a hoax / publicity stunt? I don't know, but if it was, what would be the point? To sell last-minute Balloon Boy Halloween costumes?!
c.) I want a UFO-like balloon to fly around in.
Anyways, enough about Balloon Boy. Seriously. Enough.
TV STUFF:
- THE OFFICE last night had an episode that initially turned me off with its cartoonish premise, but ultimately sort of won me over with its humor. I mean, the idea of a whole episode centered around Michael Scott fearing that an insurance pitchman was in fact a mafia tough guy out to extort him? Um ... okay. Like I said, pretty goofy. But as the absurdity continued to escalate, and the antics of Dwight, Andy, and Michael got increasingly over-the-top, at some point I just gave in and began to laugh my ass off. Not a classic episode, and the Kevin subplot kind of fell flat ... but some really hilarious moments made this won work.
My Grade: B
- As for the season premiere of 30 ROCK ... well, The AV Club had an exhaustive article the other day examining last season's slow but semi-alarming drop-off in quality for one of TV's best comedies ... and so I was anxious to see if this ep turned a corner, and brought 30 Rock back to its former spot as the undisputed king of TV comedy.
This one was not, sad to say, a classic. Instead, it was a lot like many of last season's episodes - very, very funny at times, but not delivering the kind of rapid-fire, laugh-a-minute hilarity of season 2. Part of the problem is that with 30 Rock, you're always guaranteed a couple of things for any given episode - for one, that Tracy Morgan will say at least a couple of hilarious things, and that Alec Baldwin will do the same. Sometimes, a few bits of classic dialogue is enough to carry an episode, but sometimes, it's really window dressing that helps hide the fact that one of the A or B plots isn't 100% clicking. Last night, all of the Liz-Peter antics, as they tried to hide the fact that they were looking for a new cast member, were only just okay. Same goes for the Page Strike. Don't get me wrong, the very idea of a Page strike makes this former NBC Page smile. But there is so much potential in this idea that the actual execution was pretty good, but not amazing. Especially disappointing was that the great Steve Buscemi appeared, but didn't get much great material to choose on.
Personally, I've always been in favor of 30 Rock embracing its crazy, random side, and not ghettoizing that aspect of the show. I love when Tracy is involved in the main storylines rather than just off doing his own thing, for example. I still want to see 30 Rock be weird and random. We got that only in small doses last night, but we did get a lot of meta-commentary. I do like that 30 Rock isn't afraid to take swipes at NBC or at the television industry in general, but at the same time, last night was a little too wink-nudge-y for my tastes. I'd rather see these things satirized organically in the storylines, and not have, say, a throw to Jay Leno as a part of the show.
Now I don't mean to just rag on 30 Rock. The truth is, there was a lot to like in last night's ep. Like I said, I loved the premise of a Page Strike. I got a huge kick out of Tracy Morgan's quest to re-connect with his populist roots ("I'd better go call Rabbi Schmuley!"). There was good stuff in there. I just want to see 30 Rock back on top of its game.
My Grade: B
- Last night on FRINGE, we got another episode that was extremely X-Files-ish in terms of plot and tone. Now, I love Fringe, but I didn't start to *really* love it until it got away from these kinds of one-off episodes and began to focus on its overarching myth-arc - the pattern, the alternate universes, Walter's checkered history, etc. I think part of the problem is that Fringe has just never figured out the perfect formula for these episodes. If you look at The X-Files, they had a couple of keys to their monster-of-the-week eps that made many of them work so well. For one, they almost always completely ignored the show's larger mythology - this allowed them to completely focus on the freak o' the week. It allowed them to go in-depth with the villain's backstory, or its psychology, or its origins. The stories were based on myths, local legends, popular folklore, science-fiction, etc. On Fringe, early episodes were all connected in some wa to the ominous Pattern. Last night's ep and the week before? Not really. There were bits and pieces of the show's serialized mythology. There was a somewhat random villain who we never really got to sink our teeth into. Sure, there was a cool idea at the heart of the episode - the concept of bottling up people's dreams and nightmares and then force-feeding them to others via microchips implanted in the brain - but we never truly explored its ramifications or applications, and we never 100% understood why the doctor behind this insidious plot went down this dark rabbit hole to begin with. Fringe has done a great job of getting into the heads of its protagonists - now it needs to do the same for its antagonists. Finally, The X-Files always knew how to deliver a killer ending. Too many of these Fringe episodes feel rushed - there was hardly any real resolution in last night's ep, no reflection, no postscript. The mad dream doctor was simply dispatched with and that was all she wrote. It's funny too because Fringe has had some killer cliffhangers in its day, but these have mostly been relegated to its more serialized episodes. Again, the show still struggles to figure out how best to present these more self-contained storylines. One more gripe - some of the dialogue and overall storytelling in last night's ep was pretty clunky. Like when Peter remarks that one of the night-terror victims seemed to have an interest in sleep deprivation, then immediately rattled off the titles of all the sleep-centric books that were right there on his bookshelf. Or how about the way that the doctor's research assistant was introduced? He may as well have walked onscreen with a T-shirt saying "Hi, I'm Evil!". Okay, sure, he turned out not to be evil, and was just a red herring, but still. All of this being said, I still love Fringe. Even though I'm much more invested in the serialized eps at this point as opposed to the one-and-done's, I still love these characters enough that it's fun to follow them into pretty much any situation. John Noble is still ruling it week in and week out. There's still an overall great vibe to the show - dark and creepy and atmospheric. The show I think is off for a few weeks due to baseball - here's hoping it comes back in November with a vengeance.
My Grade: B-
- Okay, it's just about time for the weekend to commence, and I for one can't wait. For one thing, I'm completely burned out from what has been an uber-long week at work, and I'm already salivating at the thought of sleeping late on Saturday. But even more exciting, tomorrow is my annual trip to KNOTT'S SCARY FARM. And then, on Sunday, I'll be heading to the UC Irvine Campus to attend TNA's Bound For Glory event! So yeah, a jam packed weekend is ahead of me - check back next week for the full rundown!
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