I Heart TV

I love TV. You love TV. I love to read about TV. Hopefully, so do you.

7.29.2005

NARM! part two

Heather Havrilesky addresses Six Feet Under and Nate dropping to the floor after fucking Maggie (if only he'd had his pants around his ankles) here. She makes some interesting points but says NARM! too much.

NUMB ARM! NUMB ARM! NARM!

On this week's Family Guy, a worm in Brian's stomach made a joke about Six Feet Under, saying something like "I've only been alive for six weeks, and I've never been outside this dog's stomach, but I still know that Six Feet Under is pretentious."

My boyfriend and I re-watched that FG episode last night, and then watched this week's 6FU. At the start of the episode, my boyfriend asked if I thought that 6FU was pretentious, so I tried to explain what's been bothering me about this season's episodes.

I've never been a huge 6FU fan. I didn't have HBO for the first two seasons, but sometime between the second and third seasons my roommate Andy borrowed some tapes from a friend and got hooked, and when one person in our house becomes obsessed with a show it tends to spread. So now I have seen every episode in seasons 3, 4, and 5 (so far), maybe about half of season 2, and maybe one or two episodes in season 1. I've always liked it, but somewhere along the way (like the start of this season), it became less something I looked forward to every week and more of an obligation. Like, well, I've watched this show for awhile now, and I want to know what happens. But I don't enjoy sitting down and watching each episode as much as I used to.

I found out about Nate's collapse before I had a chance to see the episode, and it didn't affect me much. Part of that comes from knowing beforehand, and part of it likely comes from not seeing all of the original "Nate has brain disease" episodes. But part of it also comes from my dissatisfaction with this season. I'm losing hope for these characters. I'm seeing how they act, and I hate it. I hate seeing them fuck up their lives week after week. This mostly applies to Nate and Brenda.

I'll still be watching, of course. But I won't be as sad when it ends.

7.27.2005

YOU can be on the challenge. Yes, you.

Bunim-Murray and Real World/Road Rules Challenge offer regular people the chance to compete.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that if I were in better physical shape, and didn't already have plans to go to the beach on Saturday, I would actually consider trying out. My refusal to hook up with anyone or drink at all would get me zero screen time, so I could worry more about winning ~$50,000 and less about looking like an asshole. Though I think that the one thing all people on reality shows have in common is that money is more important than not looking like an asshole.

good blog alert!

Popwatch is my new favorite blog. Brought to you by Entertainment Weekly, one of my favorite magazines, it updates me on the news I want to hear most...that is, entertainment news that does not involve bombs on the subways or discussions of just how hot it really is in NYC today.

7.26.2005

brand names continued

Josh came up with many, many more producer/creator/directors who function as brand names in the comments to my last entry, so I'm just going to cut and paste his comment here in case you missed it:

Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, Blind Justice, Over There)

David E. Kelley (LA Law, Doogie Howser, Chicago Hope, Picket Fences, The Practice, Boston Public, Boston Legal)

Aaron Spelling (90210, Melrose Place, 7th Heaven, Summerland, Love Boat, Starsky & Hutch, etc etc)

Bunim-Murray (Real World, Road Rules)

David Simon (Homicide: Life in the Street, The Corner, The Wire)

Spielberg is starting to have quite a TV franchise: (Band of Brothers, Taken, Into the West

Dick Wolf kinda counts for the Law & Order franchise, as does Anthony Zuiker for the various CSI's.

Does Matt Groening count? James L. Brooks does (Mary Tyler Moore show, Taxi, The Simpsons)

Peter Engel? (*lol*)

Scanning this list I have to wonder once again why Picket Fences hasn't made it to DVD yet.

I haven't been watching too much TV this past week. My roommate was out of town and so I tried to barrel through as many of my DVDs on our joint Netflix queue as possible. No Netflix TV rentals this week, though my next disc will be the start of Sopranos season 3 (I'm watching all Sopranos ever right now.)

One thing I have been thinking about is the age of the target audiences for my favorite shows vs. how old I am. At a family gathering of my boyfriend's this weekend I was outed as a TV fanatic and asked what shows I watch. When I named Veronica Mars and the O.C., someone said "oh, so you watch all the teen shows." It's interesting, because I don't think those two shows are necessarily aimed at teens, even though they feature teenage characters. I wonder if part of the reason I relate to these shows is that I know the actors themselves are my age. Or if it's that the shows I watch present a very fictionalized view of what high school is like. Then again, I watched Life As We Know It, and I felt that was a pretty accurate depiction of high school.

What I'm really asking is this: Am I ever going to feel too old to watch these shows? I certainly hope not.

(I have more thoughts on this topic. Maybe a longer piece will come later.)

7.23.2005

producer/writer/director brand names

With the upcoming release of Joss Whedon's new film Serenity, based on Firefly, a show cancelled after less than a season's worth of episodes, I've been thinking about the few television writer/director/producers who constitute a brand. I don't think I'll like Serenity/Firefly (the "space western" genre isn't appealing to me--two genres that i don't like put together? not awesome), but I do like Buffy and Angel (not a rabid fan, but I like them), and so I am a little bit curious. The name Joss Whedon signifies certain things to me, as I'm sure it does for many TV fans. But what other auteur has this kind of power?

I would say J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost) fits into this category. For me, Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars) definitely will from now on. I bet Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) will as well. Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) is the king of name recognition on the reality side, and I would say Norman Lear (All in the Family, Good Times, One Day at a Time, Sanford and Son, and many others, including a less-mentioned favorite of mine, The Powers That Be) was perhaps one of the first examples of this.

Who am I missing?

7.22.2005

Veronica on CBS!

An anonymous reader tipped me off to this news, and here's a link to it on Neptunesite: Four episodes of Veronica Mars will air on CBS in the next few weeks! Viacom owns both UPN and CBS, and this just shows how much the network is behind VM. If we are lucky, it'll run before or after CSI or Two and a Half Men. Here is the episode breakdown:

Friday, July 29th, 8 PM - the pilot
Friday, July 29th, 9 PM - Echolls Family Christmas (#10)
Friday, August 5th, 8 PM - Clash of the Tritons (#12)
Friday, August 12th, 8 PM - Ruskie Business (#15)

Now you have no excuse! Watch! Please! I will come to your house and act out what happens in the episodes between these if necessary.

This press release also tells us that season two begins on September 21, just two short months away. It also means that there will only be about 3 weeks between the start of season two and the release of the dvd. That means that if I know you in person, I will keep all season two episodes on the tivo until you can watch all of season one in order on the dvd.

In other IMMENSELY EXCITING Veronica Mars news, my boyfriend works at a photography stock agency and yesterday got a call from someone at Veronica Mars wanting to buy stock photos for the set! My boyfriend spoke to someone on the set of Veronica Mars!

7.21.2005

why will & grace

This article attempts to explain why Will & Grace received the same number of Emmy nominations as Desperate Housewives despite being "past its prime." Unfortunately, the writer just asks the stars (Eric McCormack) and the creators (Kohan & Mutchnick), who would never say "yeah, we totally sucked this year! isn't it funny we got nominated?" (I haven't watched this year, so I don't know if it sucked.) Anyway, their contention is mostly that a) the show is still good, and b)lots of famous people like it. And famous people are so in touch with what the American public likes! Right.

7.20.2005

10 years of RV living

Road Rules Web celebrated the 10th anniversary of Road Rules yesterday. The website has Jake (of Road Rules Islands) talking a bit about the RR experience and an anniversary poll. It feels strange to celebrate 10 years of Road Rules when everything I've heard says the show is gone for good, though I've never heard why. Too expensive? Insurance issues? Who knows. Still, it was "the first ever adventure reality TV show and second reality TV show ever." Plus, in later years, I actually enjoyed it much more than Real World, as the "adventure" and competition elements gave it something to tune in for besides pretty people getting wasted. Happy anniversary, bastard stepbrother of Real World!

7.19.2005

over there

My copy of Entertainment Weekly this week came with a promotional DVD for Over There, a new series premiering on FX on July 27 at 10 PM. I also saw this DVD in an issue of Time that we got at my office this week, and I'm wondering what other magazines had it (now that I think about it, it makes sense that EW and Time both had it, since they're both Time Warner properties.)

I think the DVD just has a few scenes (and maybe a battle?). I haven't watched it yet, and I may very well not, just because a war show is never going to be a show for me, but it's an interesting promotional tactic. From what I hear, the show's gotten decent reviews so far, and I'm wondering what kind of an effect this will have on viewership, and if that can even be measured accurately.

You know, if I could, I would love to burn DVDs of all my favorite shows for my friends to get them to watch, and I bet it would work, too.

books to tv

A few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of The Dive from Clausen's Pier, a 2002 novel that had been recommended to me a long time ago by a friend. Turns out that this Sunday the movie version will air on Lifetime. I'm only about a third of the way through the book right now, but I'm still annoyed that Michelle Trachtenberg will be playing the part of Carrie. She just seems too young and goofy to play Carrie. I hated her as Dawn, Buffy's little sister, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I might be carrying a personal grudge, since Michelle grew up in my neighborhood and was reportedly very snotty to the woman whose kids I baby-sat, a teacher at Michelle's elementary school. But maybe she'll surprise me. I didn't hate her as much on Six Feet Under. Though I'm preemptively pissed that they changed the name of the main character from Carrie Bell to Carrie Beal. And Mike is Mike Mayor instead of Mike Mayer. Why?

7.18.2005

veronica mars news

I'm a little late on this, but Charisma Carpenter and Steve Guttenberg will be joining the cast of Veronica Mars. Charisma Carpenter is better known as Cordelia from Buffy and Angel, and Steve Guttenberg was in Three Men and a Baby and Police Academy, among many other movies that I watched while growing up. Charisma will play Kendall Casablancas, stepmother to Dick and Beaver, and appear in at least 6 episodes, while Steve will play Woody Goodman, a mayoral candidate who will appear in at least 7 episodes.

I support anything that brings more viewers to VM, but it makes me sad to think that maybe some of last season's regulars will appear less so that they can afford Charisma and Steve. I do think Charisma will make an awesome trophy wife, though.

In other Veronica Mars news, two things from E Online's Watch With Kristin:

And furthermore, a hearty "Hear! Hear!" to the words of my dear friend, Lost boss Damon Lindelof, who returned my congratulatory email with: "Thanks so much for all your kind words and support! P.S. I think Veronica Mars got shafted."


Nice to hear. Kristin also names VM as her number one "summer show to watch." She also tells us that Logan will be in every episode next season (yay!). However, she has reneged on her initial report that someone would leave after episode 5 or 6 (a pretty widely circulated rumor until Rob Thomas, exec producer, shot it down in a TV Guide interview) and now says the person will leave after approximately 12 episodes. Kristin is right more than she's wrong, but I have to say I have my doubts here, just because she was wrong the first time. (Although that might not have been her fault...a gossip is only as good as her sources.) Later on, she says it's not Weevil, though he is down to 12 episodes from 16. And we've already learned it's not Logan. Duncan? Aw, Duncan.

Also? I want Kristin's job. Dream job.

Also, last night I hosted a little Veronica Mars viewing party and I was so happy to see that my two friends loved the show, even asking to watch three episodes instead of the planned two. Since we've seen episodes 1 (Logan fucks up Veronica's car), 6 (Logan arranges boxing matches between drunk homeless people) and 10 (Logan makes racist comments to Weevil), they currently think Logan is an asshole. Little do they know!

I will not rest until everyone I know watches this show!

7.14.2005

Emmys!

The Emmy nominations were announced today, and despite my most fervent hopes, Veronica Mars was not nominated for anything. I didn't really believe it would be, but a girl can always hope. Anyway, I thought I'd share some thoughts I had as I read through the 36 page nomination list.

- The nominations were presented by Michael Imperioli (Sopranos) and Jami Gertz (um, Less Than Zero? the phone sex woman on Seinfeld? I could have also sworn she played Lisa on Another World back in the late 80's, but that was Joanna Going, recently on Into the West) I met Michael Imperioli once (I was baby-sitting for a friend of his daughter) and he was very nice and normal. But has Jami Gertz been in something recently that I'm forgetting? IMDB says no. Or is someone at the Emmys just a huge Jami Gertz fan?

- CBS led network TV with 59 nominations. (HBO led overall with 93.) I watch zero shows on CBS.

- Family Guy got nominated for Outstanding Animated Program! But for North by North Quahog, the season premiere, which I thought was very ehhh. I bet some of the more recent, extremely foul-mouthed episodes didn't air before the cutoff date.

- Carnivale was nominated for a lot of non-performance awards, like art direction and hair and makeup. Earlier today I was reading something I wrote the day after the season 2 finale and I got a little sad thinking about how it will never air again.

- I had no idea there were Emmys for casting. How does one get involved in casting? I've always wondered that.

- Reefer Madness got two noms (choreography and song) so at least Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) is in there somehow.

- Another category I didn't know existed was Outstanding Commercial. I don't recognize any of the nominees, but thanks to Tivo I've seen a total of maybe 5 commercials in the past 6 months.

- It's interesting to me that Desperate Housewives (with numerous nominations) is categorized as a comedy. One of the few things I like about the show (I am most definitely not a fan) is the way it straddles the line between comedy and drama. I feel like when shows are in-between in such a way, they get lumped in with comedies for a better chance to win. Unfortunately I can't think of any examples right now. If I had to pick, though, I would say that DH, like The O.C., is a drama with comedic elements.

- Quentin Tarantino got nominated for his CSI episode. I'd like to catch that at some point--I'm not a big CSI fan but I can definitely watch an episode or two every once in a while.

- Nominations for Deadwood and Rescue Me make me think I should give in and get into those shows. Maybe when I finish my All Sopranos Ever project (I have finished the first two seasons.)

- MADtv got a few random noms, like hairstyling. I had no idea this show was still on. Remember when it was going to dethrone Saturday Night Live?

- I also had no idea there was a category for title design. I wonder if Carnivale was nominated for this when the show as first on, as that was one of my favorite title sequences ever. Veronica Mars would have been a great addition to this category; it's one of the few shows where I don't fast-forward through the credits because it sets the mood so perfectly. (A side note about mood-setting: When Allison and I would download Degrassi: TNG episodes after they aired in Canada, there was always a short intro with a screenshot crediting the person who downloaded and sent them out, accompanied by a weird rap song. Now, when I watch the eps on TV, I kind of miss the song. Anyway...)

- And now, onto the big guns...I'm happy that Zach Braff was nominated for Lead Actor in a Comedy, even though I've never liked Scrubs. I tried to get into it after Garden State to no avail. Still, I like Zach and his blog, so I'm happy. And better him than Ray Romano.

- poor, poor Eva Longoria. Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and Teri Hatcher were all nominated for Lead Actress in a Comedy, but nothing for Eva. Hell, even two of the supporting women got nods. That's going to be just a little awkward.

- Naveen Andrews and Terry O'Quinn (Sayid and Locke) got nominated for Supporting Actor in a Drama. If only Hurley had been nominated, now that would have been exciting.

- The biggest surprise to me was that That's So Raven got nominated for Outstanding Children's Program. That show sucks. A lot.

That's all for now. I'll give my predictions as we get closer to the ceremony.

7.12.2005

the shame of the real world

Times when last week's episode of Real World Austin made me ashamed to be a woman, and then ashamed to be someone in my 20's, and then ashamed to be a human being:

1. When two random girls in a bar shouted "get a prettier girl!" to wes as he sat on the couch with rachel. Rachel is very pretty! Also, what kind of asshole would say that? (Oh, wait. An asshole who wanted to be on television. Willingness to be an asshole to get on TV makes me so sad. Unless these girls were already assholes. Then I'm sad in a different way.)

2. When Wes declared "I'm drunk, so now I can tell you that I like you" to Johanna.

3. When Johanna told Rachel that guys don't like her (Rachel) because she throws herself at them.

3a. When Johanna threw herself at a bartender she had just met, made him do a body shot off her, and made out with him, all while he was AT WORK. then she declares to a friend on the phone that she is in love with him.

There were more moments, but I think I've blocked them out. I think I'm getting old.

7.05.2005

celebreality

I've never seen an episode of The Surreal Life, but that'll change come this Sunday (or shortly thereafter on Tivo.) The show has never appealed to me; part of the problem of a show filled with has-beens (or those who never were) is that sometimes people are has-beens for a reason. But Janice Dickinson and her frankness have grown on me after watching America's Next Top Model, and so I've set the Tivo to tape episode 1, though I've never even heard of Carey Hart or Caprice and I think it will make me a little bit sad to see Balki Bartokomus embarrass himself. Word has it he hits on anything with a pulse. Oh Balki, how far you've fallen.

On the other hand, I'm pretty psyched about Celebrity Fit Club, though I've never seen an episode of that, either. At least celebrities will be improving themselves AND making asses out of themselves, instead of just the latter. Plus, one of the celebrity fatties is Phil Margera, father of Bam Margera, who I grew to love while watching Viva La Bam. Most of my favorite Viva La Bam moments featured Phil, such as when Bam ironed pictures of hamburgers onto all of Phil's clothes, or when Bam organized "Don't Feed Phil Day," putting up billboards all over town with Phil's face on them instructing citizens of West Chester not to feed Phil.

But sorry Hulk Hogan, I will not be watching Hogan Knows Best. I can only do so much when it comes to watching former celebrities look silly.