So after several days of sweet, sweet vaction time, it's once again back to the grind. But hey, I had a fun and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend - some good food, good movies, some fun nights out, and even some basketball. If you're behind on your blog readin', be sure to check out my previous couple of entries, which include reviews of movies like THE ROAD and NINJA ASSASSIN.
Anyways, I am prepping some big blog posts for the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned. Not only will my usual Best of the Year posts be going up, but I'm also planning on doing a series of BEST OF THE DECADE posts with huge lists detailing the best music, movies, TV, and more of the 00's. Come on, you knew I couldn't resist ...
It's funny though - like anyone else, I have some inevitable gaps in my pop-cultural intake.. While I may not have time to watch the entire reun of The Sopranos or anything to prep for my Best-of-the-Decade list-making, I am at least trying to watch a couple of movies that I somehow missed upon their release. To that end, I've just recently watched some must-see movies on DVD that I had never seen previously. Both were pretty spectacular - one being CITY OF GOD, the other being GRIZZLY MAN. Man, I watched Grizzly Man yesterday and am still semi-blown-away yet also traumatized by it. Suffice it to say, both films will likely end up with a spot on my Top Movies of the Decade list. Stay tuned ...
TV STUFF:
- So I thought there wasn't supposed to be new TV over Thanksgiving? And yet, stuff kept piling up on my DVR. Come on, networks, give a man a break, will ya'? On the other hand, I can't really complain about a new episode of Modern Family, can I? Speaking of which ...
- Oddly, MODERN FAMILY's pre-Thanksgiving ep was its best in weeks. After slumping a bit for a couple of episodes, MF came back at full-strength with a pretty hilarious ep about a birthday party gone awry. The story revolved around Luke's upcoming birthday party, as his parents are determined to throw him the party to end all parties (they are moved by his relative indifference to parties and presents - when asked what he wants for his b-day, Luke says that "a belt would be nice, but ... this extension cord has been working pretty well ..." - hilarious). But this was an ep where all the various subplots came together to merge into one hilarious caucophony of craziness. Most everything clicked - from Cameron's transformation into Fizbo the Clown (his encyclopedic lesson on types of clowns was great), to Manny's crush on a classmate who would be at Luke's party, which made for maybe the ep's funniest moment, when Manny heroically tries to save her from a collapsing Moon Bounce (very Malcolm in the Middle-esque). Good stuff all-around from Modern Family.
My Grade: A-
- GLEE also had a pretty good episode on Wednesday, even if I agree with the sentiment that the whole fake-pregnancy thing is a pretty absurd storyline. I mean, come on, how could a guy possibly not realize, after multiple months, that his wife is not actually pregnant? That aside, it's amazing how in some ways Quinn has quietly become the star of the show. Her pregnancy storyline is perhaps the show's most substantial and compelling, and somehow almost every other character has now become a supporting player of sorts in Quinn's ongoing saga. But the level of teen melodrama this week combined with the return of Sue Sylvester made for a potent combo. I also ejoyed the rivalries with the competing glee clubs, as well as Kurt and Rachel's rivalry over Fynn. Overall, a pretty entertaining episode of Glee.
My Grade: B+
- Okay, so both THE SIMPSONS and FAMILY GUY came out with a similar sort of episode Sunday night. What I mean is, well, I've talked a lot in the last few weeks about how both of these shows have seriously been in the crapper for the last few months. Now, ideally with The Simpsons and FG, you want an episode that has both an interesting story and also jokes that consistently hit the mark. Last night's ep weren't quite a return to to form in that regard, but both were halfway there, as both had some pretty funny jokes that kept me chuckling throughour the half-hour. And yet, both had storylines that made me cringe at certain points as well. Let's take a look:
With The Simpsons, it was one of those episode where a lot of random jokes really clicked. I was cracking up throughout the opening, in which The Simpsons drive back from a winter vacation only to hit obscenely awful traffic. Some of the family-in-the-car dialogue was hilarious, and when Homer crashed the car in ice, only to be saved by Cletus ... well, few other shows have ever mocked redneck yokels as well as The Simpsons, and last night was no exception (the redneck version of The Country Bear Jamboree was great). But soon enough, this dovetailed into a storyline in which Lisa takes up with a bunch of Wiccans. Sounds good in theory, but the execution was not great and mostly fell-flat. For some reason, the show made the Wiccans into lame caricatures rather actual characters. I know The Simpsons has always done broad caricatures, but usually what made the show standout was that there'd be an unexpected depth to even characters like Apu or Flanders. The three Wiccan women in this one were just kind of there. At the same time, there were some great throwaway gags (Wiccapedia, Bart's rant to Lisa about how she was too young to be a Wiccan, etc.). But the overall storyline just felt pointless and never really did anything with Wicca except to use it as something for the Springfieldians to riot over.
On Family Guy, a similar situation. The overall storylines were kind of ridiculous. Brian getting upset about how unfairly animals are treated in relation to people ... well, it just felt off, let alone the fact that it makes no sense. I don't hold FG to any sort of standards of logic at this point, but having Brian protest for animal rights when he is a lone talking, intelligent dog in a world of otherwise-normal animals ... um, okay? Yeah, probably best not to think about it too much. But, I'll tell you this: I am pretty sick of Brian's character in general. He just seems like a convenient way for the FG writers to include some sort of serious, issue-oriented dialogue in every episode, and yet, there is also clearly an element of self-loathing at play, since just last week they had Quagmire call out Brian on just how annoying he has become. I think what I'm getting at is that, man, FG has become a bitter, bitter show. It now seems to be all about "hey, yeah, we don't give a %&$# anymore, so we'll just throw in gags designed to cross the line between funny and obnoxious". I mean, the cleaning lady gag last night - it had some hilarious moments. I was dying when Chris was forced to sleep in the same bed as the Maid, and awkwardly tried to make a move on her - so funny. But ... did we really need Stewie to make a joke that had him include the phrase "you people?". It'd be one thing if the point of the joke was that Stewie is an asshole. But the joke was more about "hey here's a biting witticism from Stewie that is also semi-rascist." I don't get why Family Guy needs that kind of stuff. At the same time, I don't get why every episode now has to be centered around some social issue. That has NEVER been FG's strength. I wish the show would just concentrate on the random, absurdist, and consistently funny style of humor that made it awesome to begin with. And yet, at the end of the day, Sunday's ep featured some of the funniest gags the show has had in a while -- the aforementioned gag with Chris and the Maid, a cutaway to Peter having a swingset accident, a random but funny appaearance by the dad from Family Circus (for some reason, Family Circus jokes never get old to me ...), and several others were all really well done. Well, baby steps, I guess.
My Grades:
The Simpsons: B
Family Guy: B
- Finally, I thought I'd take a minute and talk THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O'BRIEN. I just wanted to say that, in my view, Conan has been on a real roll for the last couple of weeks. I know there have been the naysayers who claim that Conan just hasn't been the same since the move to 11:30. And I have to agree that, a couple of months ago, the show was definitely starting to get a bit stale. Too many of the same bits every week. The whole anti-New Jersey thing was okay, but not quite as funny as it might have been. And the few skits that were lifted from the old Late Night show (Conando, for example) just made you wish there was more of that old Late Night magic each episode. Well, it's been a slow and steady climb, but I feel like Conan has been getting back to more Late Night-style humor of late. Sure, we've been getting old favorites like The Great Interrupter and Deep Conversations with Max, but the real turning point may have been the classic interview from the other week with Heidi and Spencer of The Hills. Whereas someone like Leno may have mostly taken them at face value, something magical happened that night in the Tonight Show studio -- the audience seemed to be willing Conan to avoid a standard interview and to really let them have it. I mean come on, anyone who's watched Conan and knows his sensibilities knows that it's not in his nature to cozy up to lame reality TV "stars" (especially ones as douchey as Heidi and Spencer - who are regular targets of Conan's jokes to boot). So Conan embraced the boo's for the pair and went with it, and the resulting interview - awkward and hilarious all at once - was classic Conan. In the following days, it feels like it's been one great bit after another on Conan. An awesome interview with new Tonight Show semi-regular, Norm McDonald, the return of Max Weinberg and all the hilariously random humor that allows for, and a great Thanksgiving ep that featured a classic segment showing Conan's thanksgiving dinner with his staff, and also Pee Wee Herman doing a Thanksgiving play. So I say this: When it comes to late-night humor, Conan is still the king, haters be damned.
- Alright, I am out for now. Good luck getting through the Monday-after-Thanksgiving!
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