2014 RANDOM TV THOUGHTS

[Brian Fowler]

Check the community thread

 

Eh, I have zero care.  I just find it coming back again amusing.

 

I think I've seen one episode, maybe two, and one clip where they vowed to fight to bring Firefly back, total, in the show's entire run. 

 

But it apparently has Dracula level powers of resurrection.

[Spritenaut 32]

Apparently, Jennifer Love Hewitt is joining Criminal Minds as a regular.  That... does not seem like a natural fit.  Then again, she supposedly almost joined Law and Order: SVU a couple seasons ago and talks broke down after the news leaked (I kinda think the producers lost interest after they lured Mariska Hargitay back.  Supposedly, she was going to exit the show and Hewitt would replace her.  Neither happened).

[_MJ_]

Surprise you don't follow Community, Fowler.  I thought it would be up your alley of interest. 

[Just Dave]

So, I'm rewatching Oz with the mrs., who's never seen it, and we got to the episode Variety where some of the cast members sing. I've never heard any of the songs in that episode before or since. Anyone know where they came from?

[Guest Edwin]

Season 2 of Nathan For You premiers tonight.

[Raziel]

http://abcallaccess.com/show/the-quest/

 

So, apparently ABC went and made a LARP reality show.

 

I'm ashamed that I might actually watch it.

[ultimoDANK]

Check the community thread

No thanks. I just wanted to say the "Six seasons and a movie" stuff was brilliant and I think is a factor in it being saved so many times. Now to see if they can get the movie part done.

[Rev Ray]

So Weird Al played Adolf Hitler in last night's Drunk History story about the Max Schmeling vs. Joe Louis.

[ultimoDANK]

He's way too handsome to play Hitler!

[pipGofern]

So, I'm rewatching Oz with the mrs., who's never seen it, and we got to the episode Variety where some of the cast members sing. I've never heard any of the songs in that episode before or since. Anyone know where they came from?

 

I remember that episode. It came out like 6 months after Buffy did "Once More With Feeling" and I always figured somebody saw the acclaim Joss got and decided, "Hey, we got dudes that can sing!" Although given production lead times, it probably had more to do with covering for Harold Perrineau being off filming Matrix. Also, they just used existing songs where Joss actually composed his own show-tunes.

 

Anyway, the songs from the episode were:

SIster Pete and Beecher sang Days Like These by Janis Ian.

Hoyt sang No World Order by Todd Rundgren.

Father Mukada sang Leather by Tori Amos.

Redding sang Handsome Johnny by Richie Havens.

Beecher and Schillinger sang The Last Duet by Barry Manilow and Lily Tomlin.

[piranesi]

I follow MeTv on twitter, mainly because it's awesome to wake up to tweets like:

 

"When an army colonel is murdered after contacting Rockford, Rockford is forced into the middle of a conflict involving military police, military thieves and the colonel's daughter."

 

"There is a Raccoon election going on for convention manager and it's up to Norton to be the deciding vote!"

 

"The world's most powerful computers are being drained of their information by William Havitol who plans to use the information to become ruler of the entire world. I.R.A.C. is next on his wish list and Wonder Woman is on the case to stop him with a little help from Rover the roving computer."

 

[note the cleverness of the guy who wrote this episode of WONDER WOMAN.  The character who wants to conquer the world is named "Will Havitol."]

 

"Greg gets caught with cigarettes in his school jacket. He's been caught smoking once before. Therefore, nobody believes him when he truthfully says they're not his."

 

"The rock band "The Mosquitoes" arrive on the island for some much-needed R&R. However, the castaways try to make their lives miserable so they'll want to leave and take them with them!"

 

But the other thing MeTv posts is a running Rolodex of old character actors who have died.  It's like one a day.  Today Bob Hastings died.   You might recognize his voice as Commissioner Gordon on B:TAS.  But he was also on something like 150 different shows going all the way back to CAPTAIN VIDEO AND HIS VIDEO RANGERS, which was I think the first sci-fi show produced for television (1949)..if you can imagine a sci-fi show done live to air with a budget of like $0 per episode.

 

Here's Bob in 1949:

 

zzzzzzzzzzzzap!

 

He was once a B-29 navigator in WW2.  He was born in 1925...so he was 20 when world war 2 ended...AND HE WAS NAVIGATING A B-29 THE YEAR BEFORE!!!! Yipes.

 

His most fun credit?  He played 'The Phantom of the Opera" in THE MUNSTER'S REVENGE:

 

I can't believe the person who has an autographed Bob Hastings Munster's cast photo is selling it....hold on, there's something I need to do on Ebay.

[Greggulator]

Nathan For You, Season 2, Episode 1. GET ON THAT. It's so ridiculous.

[The Nature Boy]

Cheers question:

 

Has it ever come out what the plan for Sam and Diane would've been if Shelley Long HADN'T left Cheers? She announced halfway through season 5 and it seemed like the season had been building to a reunion anyway. Do we get Sam and Diane as a happy, married couple in season 6 and beyond?

[Joe Lucia]

I seem to agree with everyone else about The Leftovers, and a few friends I talked to all have the same general viewpoint about it - it's not great, it's not awful, and I'm curious about what the hell is going to happen. Considering it's summer and the only thing on my DVR right now is 24, I figure it wouldn't hurt to invest a little time in something new.

[J.H.]

What better way to celebrate Franz Kafka's Birthday than this...

 

James

[piranesi]

So for our binge based on the list from a few pages back we went with SHERLOCK.  My wife insisted.  But it's only been about en episode a day.  Just got to the end of season 2 which was one of the greatest 90 mins. of t.v. I've ever seen.

 

Season 1 was great too.  It had so much energy.  Given that our last Holmes-themed show was HOUSE M.D. it was like having those great energetic early seasons of that back.  I missed that.

 

The rest of season 2 was a bit of a mess though.  The Irene Adler episode was appalling in places.  Reducing that character, who could have translated into a modern telling in so many other ways, to a Penthouse letter and a series of banal sex jokes and observations about the inability of men (and ultimately Irene herself) to control their desires was disappointing.  Much of it was just another example of how otherwise brilliant British t.v. always fails at sex stuff.  It just seems so feeble and childish and giggly jokes about people being "tied up at the time."  And the ending was embarrassing, unless we're supposed to take it as Holmes' fantasy.

 

The Baskerville episode was better but so thin in terms of the fun thinking parts.  Too much leaning on absurdities and presumed technological magic that takes the fun out of figuring things out, or watching them be figured out.  And his bit of deduction in the opening scene about Henry "Knight" (a nice clever way to have Henry be the stand in for "Sir Henry" in the book) was just piddling.

 

But that finale was magnificent.  Not just in the plotting itself, but in how it played into the original "The Final Problem" and how in a kind of meta way, the new modern version of Holmes' "fall" also reflects the reason Conan Doyle wanted to kill him off in real life. Tabloid attention and fame burn you out.  I knew enough going in to know that the season 2 finale was going to be the Ned Stark episode of the show and had been getting nervous as it approached given the fall off in quality before it. 

 

But it was perfect.

[Ryan]

I have read that the season three premiere is horrific, so there is that to look forward to. That viewpoint may also be uncommon.

Edit: On further inspection, one AV Club review does not outweigh everything else. The episode is very well received.

[piranesi]

Out of all the great stuff in "The Reichenbach Fall" maybe the best touch is the reveal of the computer code and how he broke into all those place to prove he had it:

 

"You always want everything to be clever.  But it was just daytime robbery.  Like any other all you need is money and willing participants to spend it on."

[Reed]

Season 3 is filled with too many gay jokes and bad comedy. Lars Mikkelson (Hannibal's brother) is actually a really great slimy villain but isn't given nearly enough to do.

[Matt D]

I think the second episode of S3 is the best thing the show's ever done. It's also completely inward looking, so on a stand alone level, it's terrible. As part of the greater whole and as a self-aware sort of thing, it's wonderful. I couldn't show it to my father in law without heavy preparation, for instance, but it's made for the people deeply tuned in. It's a love letter to the show. 

 

The first episode of the season is pretty terrible.

[Reed]

I think the second episode of S3 is the best thing the show's ever done. It's also completely inward looking, so on a stand alone level, it's terrible. As part of the greater whole and as a self-aware sort of thing, it's wonderful. I couldn't show it to my father in law without heavy preparation, for instance, but it's made for the people deeply tuned in. It's a love letter to the show. 

 

The first episode of the season is pretty terrible.

 

That's an interesting opinion because most people/reviewers I've heard think it's pretty awful and self-indulgent. I wouldn't call it the worst episode (that's probably The Blind Banker) but I didn't think it was good.

 

The constant breaking of the fourth wall COULD have been interesting, but they did that so much in the first episode anyway, so it felt a bit useless doing it again to me. Not to mention, the whole murder storyline at the wedding was kind of preposterous. It was full of comedy, some of it hit, but most of it missed, IMO. It felt like filler...on a show that has three episodes a season.

 

I thought the third episode was easily the best of season 3 by far. They got serious again and the ending was absolutely fantastic. I was marking out.

[Matt D]

The only problem I had with it was the lack of real estate it was drawing on, since it does have so few episodes a season, but in the 2010s, we spend so much time thinking about this stuff when it's not on and filling in the gaps of the time in other cultural ways that I was okay with it. I thought the episode was a massive hit.

[EVA]

It's interesting that there's isn't much internet bickering over SHERLOCK, because when you read discussions of it, you quickly find that it's an incredibly divisive show. Just not one that people actually tend to get into heated arguments over. I guess maybe because it only comes around for 3 episodes every couple of years tempers things. No one can get too upset at something that happens only slightly more regularly than a leap year.

[odessasteps]

I have read that the season three premiere is horrific, so there is that to look forward to. That viewpoint may also be uncommon.

Edit: On further inspection, one AV Club review does not outweigh everything else. The episode is very well received.

s3 episode 1 killed my interest in the show.

[Spritenaut 32]

It may just be an indication that my expectations have hit rock bottom, but I'm kinda enjoying Taxi Brooklyn.  Not great, but more entertaining than a lot of the summer series I've watched lately on cable or network.

 

The premise is already stretching thin after two hours, though.  The bits where she calls the cabbie every time she needs to take someone in or go talk to a person of interest are absurd.